Texans

Wisdom Gym

While the NBA trade deadline isn't until Feb. 9, trade talks are starting to heat up.
Dec. 15 is known as the start of NBA trade season because any player who signed a contract last offseason can now be traded by their respective team, making it much easier for teams to negotiate deals and match salaries.
As of now, it seems that there are a lot of buyers and only a few sellers. The main sellers seem to be the San Antonio Spurs, Orlando Magic, Detroit Pistons and Houston Rockets, according to <a href="https://sports.yahoo.com/emerging-spurs-big-man-jakob-poeltl-could-be-a-key-player-in-this-seasons-trade-market-005938316.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports</a>. NBA executives are waiting for more sellers to emerge, but since there's so much parity this season, many teams are looking to buy or stand pat.
So far, the most active teams on the trade market have been the Los Angeles Lakers, New York Knicks and Rockets, according to <a href="https://sports.yahoo.com/emerging-spurs-big-man-jakob-poeltl-could-be-a-key-player-in-this-seasons-trade-market-005938316.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fischer</a>. Let's take a look at each team and the moves they're considering.
LOS ANGELES LAKERS
Over the offseason, it seemed like a Russell Westbrook trade was inevitable. However, <a href="https://theathletic.com/4004360/2022/12/15/lakers-russell-westbrook-celtics-clippers/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sam Amick of The Athletic</a> reports that "Westbrook&rsquo;s play this past month has made it increasingly unlikely that he will be traded before the league&rsquo;s Feb. 9 deadline."&nbsp;Since becoming a sixth man on Oct. 28, the 34-year-old has averaged 15.2 points, 7.9 assists, 5.8 rebounds in 28.2 minutes per game.
If Westbrook isn't expected to get dealt, why are the Lakers considered one of the most active teams?
Well, they are reportedly looking to pull off a smaller trade involving Patrick Beverley, Kendrick Nunn and potentially a protected first-round pick. Jovan Buha of The Athletic <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/lakers-looking-at-possible-patrick-beverley-kendrick-nunn-trades" target="_blank" rel="noopener">spoke about this</a> two weeks ago, and Fischer <a href="https://sports.yahoo.com/emerging-spurs-big-man-jakob-poeltl-could-be-a-key-player-in-this-seasons-trade-market-005938316.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">confirmed</a> that L.A. has offered this package to various teams (including to the Pistons for Bojan Bogdanovic). It remains to be seen whether the Lakers will be able to flip this package for a significant contributor prior to the trade deadline. As always, they're also a team to watch once buyouts begin.
The Lakers are currently 11-16, which is the 12th-best record in the Western Conference. They have the NBA's 15th-ranked defense (allowing 110.1 points per 100 possessions) and 21st-ranked offense (scoring 108.8 points per 100 possessions).
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
NEW YORK KNICKS
Big changes may be coming in the Big Apple.
The Knicks have "made plenty of its roster available for discussion, particularly Evan Fournier, Derrick Rose, Cam Reddish and Immanuel Quickley," according to <a href="https://sports.yahoo.com/emerging-spurs-big-man-jakob-poeltl-could-be-a-key-player-in-this-seasons-trade-market-005938316.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fischer</a>.
One year after acquiring Reddish in a trade with the Atlanta Hawks, the Knicks are working with Reddish's camp to find him a new home. Fischer mentions that the Knicks and Lakers have talked about a deal involving Fournier and Reddish.
At one point earlier this season, the Knicks expressed interest in Rockets veteran Eric Gordon, but the two sides weren't able to reach an agreement.
New York is currently 15-13, which is the sixth-best record in the Eastern Conference. The Knicks boast the NBA's 10th-best defense (allowing 109.1 points per 100 possessions) and 14th-best offense (scoring 110.2 points per 100 possessions).
HOUSTON ROCKETS
As previously mentioned, Houston has emerged as an early seller. 
The Rockets have the second-youngest team in the NBA, with an average age of 23.58 years old &mdash; trailing only the Oklahoma City Thunder (23.14). They are focused on rebuilding and developing their young core, but they could also be open to moving certain players for the right price. 
Eric Gordon's name has surfaced in trade rumors over the last two years, but the Rockets have insisted that they won't move Gordon unless they receive a first-round pick. There are "roughly a half dozen teams" that have had preliminary talks about Gordon, according to <a href="https://www.houstonchronicle.com/texas-sports-nation/rockets/article/Houston-Rockets-trade-options-17651050.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle</a>. Feigen mentions that Gordon is a top target for contenders (including the Phoenix Suns).
KJ Martin is another name to keep an eye on. The 21-year-old requested a trade over the offseason and "multiple sources believe he still wants out," according to <a href="https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10058513-latest-nba-intel-on-trade-season-storylines" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report</a>. Pincus notes that the Suns have tried to acquire a package of Gordon and Martin.

The Lakers, Knicks and Rockets are reportedly the most active teams in trade talks. Alex Kennedy breaks down the latest rumors.

Lakers, Knicks, Rockets are most active NBA teams in trade talks

When Indiana Pacers trade rumors have popped up throughout recent seasons, Myles Turner's name has been a mainstay in those reports. Since 2018, when the awkward front court pairing between Turner and Domantas Sabonis began, the former lottery pick had been cast aside as the apparent odd man out. However, after years of surfacing in trade rumors, Turner is still on the Pacers' roster.
This past offseason, though, the feeling was completely different for Indiana&rsquo;s starting center.
Not only was Turner the subject of more rumors &mdash; including legitimate negotiations with the Los Angeles Lakers for a potential salary-dump deal for Russell Westbrook &mdash; he saw the organization openly flirt with the best free agent available at his position. Turner watched as the Pacers aggressively pursued restricted-free-agent Deandre Ayton, which ultimately led to a signed max offer sheet. Although the Phoenix Suns quickly matched Indiana&rsquo;s offer sheet (the largest contract negotiated in franchise history), Turner knew at that point they were actively trying to find an upgrade.
During Media Day on Monday, Turner addressed the consistent rumors and failed Ayton pursuit by Indiana.
&ldquo;This is the only time I will be addressing it this year; I want to make sure everyone knows that,&rdquo; Turner said. &ldquo;Yeah, elephant in the room. For me, this is my eighth season. I&rsquo;ve been in trade rumors the past four or five years. It&rsquo;s something that I know I&rsquo;m numb to. It&rsquo;s something that... it&rsquo;s just whatever comes with this business. There are no hard feelings in his business. You have to take the emotions out of everything, and I&rsquo;ve learned that at a young age, and I still hold true to that. My job is to come in here and help these young guys now, man.&rdquo;
Turner took the high road there &mdash; no surprise for someone tactful and professional like the former Texas Longhorn. When asked about a potential contract extension still being on the table, Turner didn&rsquo;t want to elaborate. Pacers president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard echoed a similar tune regarding Turner&rsquo;s murky future with the organization last Thursday.
&ldquo;I sat down and talked with Myles for an hour, hour-and-a-half the other day. It was a heart-to-heart,&rdquo; Pritchard told Basketball News last week. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to tell you exactly what was said, but I&rsquo;ll give you the crux, and that is I think he&rsquo;s super excited about playing with Tyrese [Haliburton]. I think he wants to play the 5 exclusively. I think he wants to be a defensive monster. And I think that he&rsquo;s okay planting deep roots here. But, you know, he&rsquo;s going to be a free agent next year. There&rsquo;s a lot of things that can happen. What we think today isn&rsquo;t something that we know is going to happen tomorrow. This is the most dynamic business in the world.&rdquo;
Turner enters the 2022-23 season in Indiana not only as a veteran voice for a young locker room, but with plenty of motivation to silence the critics. Playing with another high-usage big for years, Turner feels he&rsquo;s never really had the opportunity to showcase his entire two-way skillset. Even after the seismic Sabonis trade in February, which helped steer the Indiana's direction altogether by acquiring Tyrese Haliburton, Turner never logged a minute with the rising star due to a stress reaction in his left foot suffered a few weeks prior.
&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;ve scratched the surface of my potential,&rdquo; Turner said. &ldquo;I gotta let my play do the talking. I could sit here and promise y&rsquo;all things&hellip; but I&rsquo;m going to go out there and hoop, man. That&rsquo;s what it&rsquo;s all about.&rdquo;
Already known as one of the Association&rsquo;s best rim protectors, averaging an eye-opening 2.8 blocks per game over the past four seasons, Turner is enthused about the idea of finally having the system cater to what he hopes is a full-fledged breakout campaign. The 6-foot-11 big set a career-high in scoring in 2018-19, with 13.3 points in 28.6 minutes per game. With no Sabonis and a roster in dire need of his abilities on both ends of the court, however long it may last, Turner could see his numbers spike.
Entering a contract year doesn&rsquo;t bother him.&nbsp;As he put it on Monday, Turner thrives within those types of environments. Also, Turner openly acknowledged a thought that had crossed his mind ahead of another Media Day: Would he still be in Indiana or elsewhere?
&ldquo;That&rsquo;s a good question,&rdquo; Turner said. &ldquo;I think that the way the past offseason had played out, you can only go off your past experiences. And I&rsquo;ve been in a Pacers uniform, so I can clearly say yeah, I was.&rdquo;
When Turner went down for the remainder of the regular season, Indiana&rsquo;s defense fell off a cliff. Over the final 39 games without Turner, Indiana ranked last in defensive rating, allowing a ghastly 120.9 points per 100 possessions. Before Turner was sidelined, the Pacers checked in 10.5 points better at 110.4 points per 100 possessions (which ranked No. 21 in the NBA).
Turner will be an integral piece to the Pacers' overall identity early on this season. Haliburton is now the proverbial face of the franchise, taking on a leadership role alongside expectations of flirting with an All-Star berth. However, Turner&rsquo;s fit alongside Haliburton as pick-and-roll/pop option, to go with his anchoring ability on the defensive end, could help set the tone for the organization.
Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle returned to Indiana expecting to coach a team that would consistently be within the Eastern Conference&rsquo;s top eight teams. The strong pivot in the other direction hasn&rsquo;t fazed Carlisle, potentially even reinvigorating him with players seeking out his knowledge of the game. As it relates to Turner, Carlisle has put an emphasis on making the veteran feel welcomed after the failed pursuit of Ayton.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been talking to Myles ever since July, ever since the stuff where we put the offer sheet on [Deandre] Ayton,&rdquo; Carlisle said. &ldquo;Got to spend time, a couple of days, with him at his basketball camp in Dallas in late July. Spent some time with him in August in the gym. Lloyd [Pierce] came down for a few days the following week. We spent a couple more days in the gym, had dinner at my house in Dallas.
"Myles is a pro. Myles has made it clear to me that he&rsquo;s excited about being here. He&rsquo;s excited about playing with a pass-first starting point guard like Tyrese [Haliburton]. That&rsquo;s where we are right now. That&rsquo;s where we are. I know he&rsquo;s in the last year of his contract. That&rsquo;s something that&rsquo;s on everybody&rsquo;s mind, but, hey, this is day one of Media Day. We&rsquo;re here. We&rsquo;re excited about basketball, and he&rsquo;ll be here in the gym tomorrow going hard.&rdquo;
Turner will be a member of the Pacers at least through the start of the regular season, but there are no assurances beyond that. Indiana will be put in a tough position with Turner during the final year of his contract. Jalen Smith and Isaiah Jackson, two key young frontcourt pieces who have long-term potential in Indiana, need to play as much as possible. And with Turner&rsquo;s nagging injury history, how much will the organization be willing to put on his motivated shoulders from now until February&rsquo;s trade deadline?
With the way Turner&rsquo;s tenure in Indiana has gone, one thing is for certain: Rumors will pick up steam once more as the calender inches closer to a final resolution.

For years, Myles Turner has remained the subject of trade rumors. Entering into a contract year, Turner is motivated to prove himself.

Despite uncertain future, Myles Turner motivated entering contract year

Dallas Mavericks point guard Jalen Bruson is expected to be in high demand this offseason when he becomes an unrestricted free agent. While the Mavs will be aggressive in trying to retain him, <a href="https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10035491-nba-offseason-buzz-all-eyes-on-utah-jazz-stars-knicks-lakers-pelicans-rumors?share=other" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report</a> notes that the Knicks, Pistons and Pacers are interested in signing him.
Fischer reports that "New York's efforts before the February trade deadline were primarily geared toward freeing ample cap space to offer Brunson a competitive contract this July."
Meanwhile, the Pistons would like to pair Brunson with Rookie of the Year finalist Cade Cunningham in hopes that he will thrive like he has next to Luca Doncic in Dallas.
The Pacers - who are now led on the sidelines by former Mavs coach Rick Carlisle &ndash; could have up to $25 million in available cap space this offseason. The team will also look to move Malcom Brogdon and see what his trade market is.
All that being said, <a href="https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10035491-nba-offseason-buzz-all-eyes-on-utah-jazz-stars-knicks-lakers-pelicans-rumors?share=other" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fischer says that</a> "Dallas personnel have also shared a repeated confidence they will be able to retain Brunson after this strong postseason run in North Texas."

The Knicks, Pistons, and Pacers are reportedly interested in Mavericks' point guard Jalen Brunson this offseason.

Report: Knicks, Pistons, Pacers interested in Brunson

As the NBA&rsquo;s Feb. 10 trade deadline approaches, Houston Rockets guard Eric Gordon is certainly a player to keep an eye on.
Due to his age (33 years old) and the Rockets' struggles, he's flying under the radar this season, but he's playing well &mdash; averaging 14.4 points, 3.2 assists and 2.2 threes per game, while shooting career-highs from the field (49.8%) and three-point range (43.9%). And as The Ringer's Kevin O'Connor <a href="https://www.theringer.com/nba/2022/1/24/22898436/lakers-russell-westbrook-rumors-frank-vogel-all-star" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recently noted</a>, he has really stepped up on the defensive end too.
&ldquo;Despite the losing in Houston, Gordon has defended with playoff intensity, as if he&rsquo;s showcasing his abilities for winning teams,&rdquo; O&rsquo;Connor <a href="https://www.theringer.com/nba/2022/1/24/22898436/lakers-russell-westbrook-rumors-frank-vogel-all-star" target="_blank" rel="noopener">writes</a>.
The Rockets have reportedly received significant interest in Gordon, but Houston wants a first-round pick in return, according to <a href="https://hoopshype.com/rumor/cavaliers-keeping-tabs-on-eric-gordon-caris-levert-terrence-ross/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HoopsHype&rsquo;s Michael Scotto</a>. Tthe Cleveland Cavaliers are among the teams that are interested in the veteran guard's services, per <a href="https://hoopshype.com/lists/nba-rumors-myles-turner-caris-levert-eric-gordon-bryn-forbes/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Scotto</a>.
Last week, Kelly Iko of The Athletic <a href="https://theathletic.com/3087642/2022/01/24/rockets-trade-deadline-notebook-1-0-what-im-hearing-on-john-wall-eric-gordon-christian-wood-and-more/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that the Rockets may keep Gordon beyond the deadline.
&ldquo;The Rockets have received a number of offers for the veteran wing, sources tell The Athletic, but all have been turned down,&rdquo; Iko <a href="https://theathletic.com/3087642/2022/01/24/rockets-trade-deadline-notebook-1-0-what-im-hearing-on-john-wall-eric-gordon-christian-wood-and-more/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">writes</a>. &ldquo;Barring an offer that simply can&rsquo;t be ignored, it&rsquo;s becoming more likely that Gordon remains in Houston past the deadline.&ldquo;
So, the big question: If the Rockets are holding out for a first-rounder, is there a playoff team that&rsquo;s willing to increase their offer and meet Houston&rsquo;s asking price over the next 10 days?
Considering how well he has performed and his playoff experience, perhaps it&rsquo;s possible. Gordon is earning $18,218,818 this season, and then he's due a guaranteed $19,568,360 next year. After that, his contract has a $20,917,902 team option for 2023-24.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not even thinking or worried about [trade rumors],&rdquo; Gordon said, according to <a href="https://www.houstonchronicle.com/texas-sports-nation/rockets/article/As-NBA-trade-deadline-nears-Rockets-Eric-16785529.php?utm_campaign=CMS%20Sharing%20Tools%20(Premium)&amp;utm_source=t.co&amp;utm_medium=referral" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle</a>. &ldquo;Things happen. Get traded or not, you&rsquo;ve still got to play the game of basketball. Fortunately, I&rsquo;ve been here for going on six years now, and it&rsquo;s been really good. I know the situation I&rsquo;m in. I&rsquo;m looking to just continue to play my game and look forward to continue to thrive with this group of guys.&rdquo;
Looking to go to the hottest concerts, sports, theater &amp; family shows near you? Get 100% guaranteed tickets to more than 125,000 live events from TicketSmarter, the official ticket marketplace of BasketballNews.com. <a href="https://www.ticketsmarter.com/?utm_source=basketballnewscom&amp;utm_medium=tsaff&amp;utm_campaign=referral" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Order online now</a>!

The 33-year-old guard is playing well, shooting career-highs from the field (49.8%) and three-point range (43.9%).

Will the Rockets move Eric Gordon prior to NBA trade deadline?

After a dismal 1-16 start followed by a 9-4 stretch&nbsp; &mdash; sandwiched with rumors of cutting loose head coach Stephen Silas midseason &mdash; the Rockets have gone awry yet again. They're sporting a 2-10 mark since then. Houston is young, they're certainly imperfect, and they're in store for significant change during the season if they maintain their current trajectory.
To stop and take stock of the youth movement during the first full rebuilding year post-James Harden, <a href="https://twitter.com/matissa15" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mat Issa</a> and I teamed up to gauge the development and future of the young players on the roster.&nbsp;
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
Jae'Sean Tate
There are few players in the NBA I enjoy watching more than Tate. At 26, it's hard to necessarily consider him part of the young core and rebuild, but complementary role players are an absolute must in developing high usage players.&nbsp;
Tate possesses stellar defensive versatility and efficacy &mdash; many players can do a lot of things, but doing a lot of things well is where Tate manifests his value on both ends, whether it be:
Playing the passing lanes.
<div style="width: 100%; height: 0px; position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.250%;"><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; left: 0px; top: 0px; overflow: hidden;" src="https://streamable.com/e/vbv871" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" data-mce-fragment="1"></iframe></div>
Holding his own in isolation.
<div style="width: 100%; height: 0px; position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.250%;"><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; left: 0px; top: 0px; overflow: hidden;" src="https://streamable.com/e/eec8c6" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" data-mce-fragment="1"></iframe></div>
Rotating in help.
<div style="width: 100%; height: 0px; position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.250%;"><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; left: 0px; top: 0px; overflow: hidden;" src="https://streamable.com/e/jj8enl" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" data-mce-fragment="1"></iframe></div>
Or hounding ball-handlers at the point of attack.
<div style="width: 100%; height: 0px; position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.250%;"><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; left: 0px; top: 0px; overflow: hidden;" src="https://streamable.com/e/3bxckn" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" data-mce-fragment="1"></iframe></div>
Tate is on the shortlist of players who are in a "when" not "if" category when looking to future All-Defensive team ballots. He can still clean up his off-ball defense, and he overshoots at times on switches, but many of these issues can be linked to communication &mdash; which this Houston team strongly lacks.
His offense requires more digging, as his box score doesn't leap off the page and understates his impact. He's one of only four Houston players that rates as a positive in Offensive Estimated Plus Minus, and the only Rocket who rates positive in both offensive and defensive EPM.&nbsp;
Tate is a solid finisher, but a poor shooter on low volume. He derives the majority of his positive play on offense through his decision-making and court vision. The Rockets at times take advantage of his frame and ability to bully smaller guards in the post, in order to create passing opportunities or easy scoring looks if he doesn't draw a double team.
He's excellent when grabbing and going, with timely kick-ahead passes and pacing to jumpstart the break. He's a really solid screener, which opens up intriguing small-small ball-screen actions that allow him to operate as a dribble-handoff facilitator and occasional roll man.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Was going back through my notes and realized I forgot to clip this. One of my favorite little plays from the week Jae'Sean Tate's been awesome <a href="https://t.co/FIdwDa28US">pic.twitter.com/FIdwDa28US</a>
&mdash; Mark Schindler (@MSchindlerNBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/MSchindlerNBA/status/1474041808363655171?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 23, 2021</a></blockquote>

<script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>


<script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>

He just does everything to an extent.
His lack of shooting does hold him back from becoming one of the truly elite role-players in the league, but make no mistake, finding Tate last season has proven a vital building block for the Rockets.&nbsp;
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
Kenyon Martin Jr.
KJ Martin was another pleasant surprise for the Rockets last year, far outplaying his draft value and contributing at a relatively high level much earlier than expected as a professional. That's what made his start to the season all the more perplexing. He started the year mostly out of the rotation and accruing a DNP before being reinserted to the regular rotation, albeit in a smaller role than last season (non-coincidentally, that fact can be linked with Houston's first losing streak). Fortunately, his minutes have evened back out (23 minutes per game in January) and he's played productively.
KJ has shown the foundation to become an elite play-finisher, part of what makes him so tantalizing alongside the burgeoning high usage creators on the team. He's 6'6, but one of the best leapers in the NBA &mdash; his verticality has&nbsp;boosted his gravity as a roller and cutter.&nbsp;
<div style="width: 100%; height: 0px; position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.250%;"><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; left: 0px; top: 0px; overflow: hidden;" src="https://streamable.com/e/knafyh" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" data-mce-fragment="1"></iframe></div>
He has solid counters already around the rim, with some touch on his hook shots. He's a quality passer on the roll already and makes quality decisions, although I'd even like to see him attempt some more risky passes.
To make the most of himself as a margins-based prospect, he'll need to improve as a screener and get a little stronger, but that describes almost any young player.
He's still coming along as a shooter (34.9% on threes for his career) and that's perhaps the biggest area for his improvement. If he was more willing to take his open shots, and some contested ones as well, he'd be able to flex with more opportunities as a ball-handler from the perimeter. He's not yet comfortable coming off of screens or operating with much movement, and has room to improve his footwork and shot preparation overall.
Part of what's so difficult in evaluating KJ is trying to perceive the upside he has. He's had some bright flashes as a ball-handler, primarily off of cuts where he gets room to gather himself, or attacking close-outs, but the results have been fairly mixed. His handle is quite clunky right now, but if he's able to make some real improvement there &mdash; along with his shot &mdash; he'll be cooking with grease.
KJ has some creases to work out defensively, but offers legit weakside rim protection and makes quality vertical plays at the rim &mdash; he's already a solid rotational defender with room for improvement that would be bolstered by additional strength and reps. I love his game and can't wait to see what the future holds for him, he just does good things on court!
Alperen Sengun
I cannot say enough positive things about Alperen Sengun's rookie season. I saw it with him offensively during the draft cycle, but I have been quite impressed with how he's adapted to the NBA game defensively already &mdash; and in a way I wasn't sure he'd be able to.
He's shown himself capable of playing more aggressive coverages, utilizing his wingspan and solid lateral quickness in ICE coverages to prevent drives, and using quick hands to stifle them altogether and force steals. His hands around the rim are extremely active, and in spite of some of his back-foot leaping limitations, he has a knack for tips and deflections in the paint. I absolutely love his ability to use his hips to force defenders into his contests as well. He certainly has limitations, but his ability to toe the line and expand on the margins has been tremendous to see.
Playing straight-up drop pick-and-roll defense or more in centerfield has given him some issues, if he's not able to force the defender to gather or hesitate. Straight-line bursts can hurt him due to his hip fluidity. However, that just doesn't matter very much to me. He's already shown some coverage versatility and his offensive abilities make playing a more aggressive defense worth trying.
Where do I even begin with Sengun as an offensive player, man.
Quite frankly, I've felt that Sengun is underutilized by the Rockets. I need him to start expeditiously! He's currently out with an ankle injury, so just getting back to playing at all will be a win, but the point remains: start Alperen Sengun, I beg of you.
The Rockets lack a true primary ball-handler. Kevin Porter Jr., Starting Point Guard, has been rough. Jalen Green is ideally an off-ball creator who flows into actions with his movement skills (more on that later). Sengun is pretty easily the best passer on the Houston Rockets who isn't currently sidelined by the organization (I just want to see John Wall play somewhere please).
<div style="width: 100%; height: 0px; position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.250%;"><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; left: 0px; top: 0px; overflow: hidden;" src="https://streamable.com/e/zpe5w5" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" data-mce-fragment="1"></iframe></div>
Like I wrote about with <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/trevion-williams-thinking-outside-the-box" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Trevion Williams recently</a>, playing five-out doesn't really mean that you are getting guarded five-out. So often, Sengun is spaced to the slot or above the break, and while he has shown flashes as a shooter and has indicators to hint at future growth there, he is not guarded like a floor-spacer the majority of the time he's tasked with being one in Houston's offense.
<img src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/screenshot_2022_01_13_22_19_00_lg.png" alt="" width="640" height="360" />
I'm not saying those need to be cut out entirely, as he's intrigued me with his loping drives off the catch.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Sengun is so fun man. He's had some really impressive moments this season <a href="https://t.co/WiCAG1KbAl">pic.twitter.com/WiCAG1KbAlf</a>
&mdash; Mark Schindler (@MSchindlerNBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/MSchindlerNBA/status/1460384809964953612?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 15, 2021</a></blockquote>

<script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>

What he could be if he opens up his game as a shooter and from the perimeter is part of his intrigue. However, he could be better optimized if used more often in the middle of the floor, or more regularly being tasked with running dribble-handoffs.&nbsp;
He's shown dynamic ability as a stout screener and as a roller. Affording him more opportunities where the offense flows through him could open up even easier scoring avenues for Jalen Green and Kevin Porter Jr. Screening and handoffs are a form of creation, even if they're not often considered as such, due to the levels one has to hit as a screener and passer to actually make them viable forms of self-creation. Sengun surpasses the marks required to create in those areas, and making him a larger part of the offense is something I really hope to see once he returns from injury.
Sengun does have limitations as a finisher that currently hinder his upside as a scorer &mdash; and therefore his gravity &mdash; but his craft shown in the post and on touch shots in the paint but outside the restricted area are encouraging. I'm not sure what the ceiling is for him, but his improvements as a finisher and eventually a shooter are essential to maximizing his potential.
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
Jalen Green
Jalen Green had a very rough start to his rookie season, understandable given his environment and the woes of the Rockets early on. However, his efficiency from the floor has greatly improved after a 14-game absence due to a hamstring injury: 49.8% True Shooting in his first 18 games, compared to 58.2% across his last 10, a remarkable uptick.
He's starting to get a better grasp on the finer aspects of becoming a higher usage offensive player, going through the growing pains of on-ball development. I particularly have enjoyed some of the subtleties he's started to develop in pick-and-roll.
<div style="width: 100%; height: 0px; position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.250%;"><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; left: 0px; top: 0px; overflow: hidden;" src="https://streamable.com/e/v10q8r" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" data-mce-fragment="1"></iframe></div>
Green stares down the oncoming screen from Christian Wood and rejects it as soon as Russ shifts ever so slightly onto his right foot in anticipation. Jalen's downhill burst and first step were second to none in the 2021 draft class, and this play is a showcase.&nbsp;
He hasn't yet consistently unearthed some of the low hanging fruit, like using his handle in conjunction with the screen to lull his man into it, or to set up a dribble-drive that opens him an even wider lane. He uses slight screen set-up and devastating power to draw a quick foul here (4.9 FTA per game over his last 10, that's good folks!). Imagining what he'll be able to do to the rim and opposing defenses as he starts to develop more on-ball counters and craft is ridiculous to think about.
Finding easier buckets as he develops counters at the rim and on drives would be beneficial as well. Green has the essential tools that allow him to get there, but his frame and relative lack of craft around the rim has been an issue thus far. While he's shooting pretty well at the rim this season (60% per Cleaning the Glass), he's only shooting 34.8% on layups per InStat, and has really struggled when tasked with converting against good rim protectors &mdash; and against contact and length in general.
<div style="width: 100%; height: 0px; position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.250%;"><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; left: 0px; top: 0px; overflow: hidden;" src="https://streamable.com/e/jw61sj" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" data-mce-fragment="1"></iframe></div>
That's partially why I want to see even more with Jalen flowing off the ball. His gravity largely comes from his athleticism and ability to leverage it. Optimizing him more in a Bradley Beal mold (think from prior years before the mid-30s usage you see today), coming off pindowns, floppy actions, staggered screens, Iversons, etc. to get the most out of his quickness, and then work his way into easier isolations or secondary pick-and-rolls, would do him wonders. Especially for younger ball-handlers, making things easier &mdash; to simplify reads and what's required of them to create offense &mdash; is ideal.
Working in tandem with Sengun's gravity from the middle of the floor could get the most out of Green as a cutter and allow the gravitational pull between the two to warp defenses. He still has a great deal to learn as a passer &mdash; honing his vision, his progressions through reads, as well as ball placement.&nbsp;
The Rockets aren't in a great place this season, but their outlook moving forward is full of intrigue due to the young talent on the roster. I'm not sure how it all fits together yet, or if it does at all. Nevertheless I'm greatly encouraged by the individual players who comprise their core and what their development has looked like even in a sub-optimal situation. I'm cautiously optimistic about the future in South Texas and what it could hold for Rockets fans moving forward.
Read <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/rocket-revival-evaluating-houston-rockets-young-core-part-i" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Part 1</a> of Rocket Revival, where Mat Issa broke down the rest of Houston&rsquo;s young core.

Mark Schindler breaks down four of Houston's brightest talents in Part II of his Rocket Revival series with Mat Issa.

Rocket Revival: Evaluating Houston's promising young core — Part II

In what was <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/nba-rumors-cleveland-cavaliers-expected-to-move-kevin-porter-jr-locker-room-outburst" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a hectic day</a> for the organization, the Cleveland Cavaliers received some good news with the likes of Collin Sexton, Darius Garland and Dylan Windler all returning to practice and participating in full contact drills as they return from injury. The team was also able to finally incorporate its newcomers, Jarrett Allen and Taurean Prince, into the session.
Allen and Prince arrived to Cleveland last week as a part of the blockbuster four-team trade that sent James Harden to Brooklyn, but nobody could step foot on the court until Saturday&rsquo;s early-evening clearance of the deal. Now, having met their new teammates, the former Nets are ready to move forward.
&ldquo;It feels good," Allen said. "I&rsquo;m kind of getting &lsquo;17-&rsquo;18 and &lsquo;18-&rsquo;19 Brooklyn Nets vibes [from this Cavaliers team], where we&rsquo;re not the Lakers or what the Nets were when I got traded or not one of the top-three teams. [But] we&rsquo;re all competing for something, we&rsquo;re all trying to have a common goal, working our hardest in practice, staying late and trying to grow not only as basketball players but as human beings.&rdquo;
It&rsquo;s the first time Allen has been traded. Both players are appreciative to have each other throughout this process.&nbsp;
&ldquo;It's been great to have somebody not only from the Brooklyn Nets, but another Texas guy,&rdquo; Allen said. &ldquo;We both are from Texas, just to bounce different things off of. I feel like going through this alone would have been a little more difficult. But having him around, we get to kind of express how we were feeling about the trade and just everything that was going down, so having him has been great.&rdquo;
&ldquo;Coming over with J, it gives a sense of comfortability," Prince added. "Because you always kind of go through the things in your head, of not necessarily fear, but you just think about the unknown and what could be. So having somebody that you know and are familiar with come into a situation with you like this brings a lot of comfort to you. And I feel like moving forward with this group, I can bring a lot of leadership. I have some experience playing-wise and being around some of the best players to play the game, so I'm just trying to bring what I've learned and the knowledge I possess and some gems that I've taken from different coaches, different players and kind of just shed them on a group, how they may be.&rdquo;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
The <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Cavs?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Cavs</a> introduced the newcomer pair of Jarrett Allen and Taurean Prince to the media today. Although the former Nets have a desire to keep learning, they also bring a wealth of experience to a young team they want to lead. Story for <a href="https://twitter.com/basketbllnews?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@basketbllnews</a>: <a href="https://t.co/6CLWDDoOkT">https://t.co/6CLWDDoOkT</a> <a href="https://t.co/tm8L7t9iQ9">pic.twitter.com/tm8L7t9iQ9</a>
&mdash; Spencer Davies (@SpinDavies) <a href="https://twitter.com/SpinDavies/status/1351376006817472513?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 19, 2021</a></blockquote>

<script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>

Before sending him to Cleveland last week, Brooklyn brought Prince in from the Atlanta Hawks in July of 2019 to bolster its core at the wing position. With the return of Kevin Durant, the acquisition of long-time veteran Jeff Green and the likes of Joe Harris and Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot rising to the top of the depth chart, his minutes diminished.
It&rsquo;s not an unfamiliar feeling for Prince, who has consistently had his role changed and has now played for six different head coaches since entering the league with the Hawks in 2016. Asked how he&rsquo;s viewed these adjustments from his own perspective -- and how he foresees fitting in the Cavs with those experiences -- Prince had a lengthy response.
&ldquo;Man, well you're talking to a guy whose life has kind of been so inconsistent, up and down, as far as good, bad situations growing up,&rdquo; Prince said. &ldquo;So I've always learned to kind of adapt to what's thrown my way. So with the new coaches, Coach [Mike] Budenholzer leaving when I was in Atlanta, from then going to an option offensively to now kind of like just a shooter. And then going to Brooklyn switching my position to the four, and having to guard bigger guys, gaining weight a little bit to kind of sustain those loads and then now I'm back to a lighter weight. Now I'm back at the three.
&ldquo;So there's just taken that sacrifice and do whatever the team needs me to do. But at the same time, kind of molding into the player I want to be at the same time. But that&rsquo;s what life&rsquo;s about: sacrifice. So just trying to do anything to stick around and continue to be the great-minded player I feel like I am.&rdquo;
Prince and Allen come to Cleveland with more of a seasoned presence about them, despite still being young players with room to improve.
&ldquo;[It&rsquo;s] a chance to bring out some of my leadership skills again,&rdquo; Prince said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m a four-year guy that came out of Baylor, so I was able to kind of go through growing steps and then become a leader. And then when I got in the league, I was drafted to a veteran team, so I kind of went back a little bit and it was more on the soak-it-in-and-be-a-sponge type of curve. And now it's just getting the opportunity to kind of give off some of the knowledge and experience I've had over my five years to the one-year, two-year guys.
&ldquo;By no means do I know everything. I'm still trying to get better as well. I don't think I've scratched the surface or even really reached close limits to what my skill set and abilities are. But I'm glad I'm with a group that for one, wants me, and for two, that's willing to get better and better, coachable and that's why you asked from the young guys."
<img src="https://basketballnews-media.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/story/body/allen33_lg.jpg" alt="" width="777" height="AUTO" />
That goes especially for Allen, who is just 22 years old and is now in his fourth NBA season.
&ldquo;I was thinking about it: [I&rsquo;m] just as young as them, and I don&rsquo;t want to knock on them -- but I feel like I have more experience playing in the playoffs and playing with some Hall-of-Fame players, so I kind of know a little more in that aspect in terms of coming to practice and knowing what it takes on that level to play and just keep reminding what to eat," Allen said. "I&rsquo;m happy to guide them, but I don&rsquo;t want to come in and overstep my welcome. I don&rsquo;t want to try to overpower anybody. I want to try to know where I can fit in and see if I can help in any way.&rdquo;
The two voiced excitement when Collin Sexton was mentioned. The third-year guard known as Young Bull made a massive impression on both just from past encounters as adversaries.
&ldquo;When you guys call him Bull, that&rsquo;s a good nickname because he&rsquo;s always ready to play. He&rsquo;s always head first, going down and playing hard,&rdquo; Allen said. &ldquo;I see us working together well, especially in the pick-and-roll. Playing against him, I especially realized that he draws a lot of attention. Like for me, even still I was trying to help him like off (of when he had) Tristan Thompson on the side. I would kind of leave Tristan and go towards Collin. So I think once the roles are switched, once I'm the one rolling to the basket, one that he's looking for lobs, they're going to have to help off of him and he's going to have me down below.&rdquo;
&ldquo;The number one thing that sticks out to me about him is his intensity on the defensive end. I plan to match that 100 percent,&rdquo; Prince said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s the type of stuff that gets me going. And then obviously, his ability to score the ball and be creative in the lane and get others involved, it&rsquo;s a plus. So I&rsquo;m excited to see what he does when he comes back. Definitely excited to get along with him and DG [Darius Garland] in the backcourt and see how I can help them out.&rdquo;
The 26-year-old Prince reiterated that he is nowhere near a finished product, and he agrees that Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff and his mindset could help him unlock the defensive potential he knows he has in him. Allen is looking forward to learning from a two-time All-Star in Andre Drummond and a three-time NBA champion in JaVale McGee, joking that the Cleveland big man duo has &ldquo;almost 50 years in the league combined.&rdquo;
There are a lot of things that change when a trade happens, and the logistics aren&rsquo;t easy. Allen and Prince are temporarily staying in a local hotel until their living situations are figured out. The former is apartment hunting, while the latter would probably look for a bigger place because he has a family to take care of.
So while they&rsquo;re trying to get settled in Cleveland as players, Prince and Allen are also having to get used to their new surroundings in Northeast Ohio.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s slow motion, and that&rsquo;s what I&rsquo;m used to, being from Texas,&rdquo; Prince said. &ldquo;I can walk outside and get in my vehicle and not have to go to a parking garage. I like snow, I like the weather here. It&rsquo;s cool. I&rsquo;m enjoying it. Now, it&rsquo;s time to get to the basketball part."
&ldquo;[We&rsquo;re] trying to learn all these new plays and just watching the team and finally being able to be out there with them today,&rdquo; Allen added. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s been a lot. So far, everybody has been friendly, the team has brought me in with open arms and I just can&rsquo;t wait to play with them.&rdquo;
In their debut game with the wine-and-gold, Allen and Prince will be able to close a chapter of their basketball careers -- because the Nets are the first team on the schedule, and they&rsquo;re set to play two consecutive games in Cleveland on Wednesday and Friday.
No hostility. Just a little weirdness.
&ldquo;I don't want to say it's emotional. It's a little awkward, I'm not gonna lie to you,&rdquo; Allen said. &ldquo;It's like they just traded me away. No hard feelings, but now like the actual first game is going to be against them. I think it's gonna be good. It's gonna be good to see the guys again. It's gonna be a final send-off.&rdquo;

Jarrett Allen and Taurean Prince talk about getting traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers, how they'll fit with their new team and more.

Jarrett Allen, Taurean Prince prepared to lead and grow in Cleveland

The article was initially published on BasketballNews on April 6, 2022.
Anyone else love going back and looking at old box scores and falling down afternoon-long rabbit holes, or am I the weirdo?
You might&rsquo;ve read the headline and either recalled this event actually happening, or are befuddled at how such a thing could take place, even in that NBA.
This article, published on April 6, 2022, marks 25 years since the Del Harris-led Los Angeles Lakers held Jim Cleamons and his Dallas Mavericks to 2 points in the third quarter of a regular-season game.
The contest was held at the LA Forum, where a 50-24 Laker team met a 22-53 Mavs squad with two weeks remaining before the playoffs started. Staples wasn&rsquo;t that big yet, and Crypto didn&rsquo;t exist. (Some might say it still doesn&rsquo;t, but you can fight about that amongst yourselves.)
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
A large-ass, Biggie verse-having, All-Star center named Shaquille O&rsquo;Neal had been <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1997/02/14/sports/injury-to-o-neal-is-a-blow-to-lakers.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">out with a knee injury</a> suffered that February, which he returned from five days later. Something tells me, if you made it here, you&rsquo;ve heard of him. Also on the Lakers, quite famously, was a talented rookie named Kobe Bryant, who had been playing regular rotation minutes at 18 years old, but wasn&rsquo;t yet Kobe.
The Mavericks had traded a controversial-but-talented point guard in Jason Kidd earlier in the season &mdash; along with Tony Dumas and Loren Meyer &mdash; to the Phoenix Suns for a package highlighted by Michael Finley, Sam Cassell and A.C. Green. They also dealt Jamal Mashburn to the Miami Heat several weeks later for Kurt Thomas, Sasa Danilović and Martin M&uuml;&uuml;rsepp.
And right before the deadline, Dallas rerouted Cassell as part of a five-man package including Jim Jackson, George McCloud (who wound up on the Lakers retroactively), Eric Montross and Chris Gatling for Shawn Bradley, Khalid Reeves, Robert Pack and Ed O&rsquo;Bannon &mdash; famously the Most Outstanding Player of the 1995 Final Four, and <a href="https://www.primerus.com/business-law-articles/ed-obannon-shines-a-light-upon-student-athletes-right-of-publicity-624201.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">killer of EA's NCAA Football and NCAA Basketball video game franchises</a>. This move not only cemented Dallas&rsquo; rebuild, but it officially made way for a <a href="https://www.dallasnews.com/sports/mavericks/2018/06/06/flashback-jamal-mashburn-on-what-really-happened-between-jason-kidd-jim-jackson-and-toni-braxton/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Toni Braxton-less future in Texas</a>.
The Mavericks, <a href="https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/DAL/1997_games.html">who came in as losers of 10 straight heading into this game</a> &mdash; a lengthy skid that never saw the team score more than 92 points &mdash; went into Hollywood and started Pack, Finley, Green, Bradley and Derek Harper. Without Shaq, the Lakers began with Derek Fisher, Eddie Jones, Jerome Kersey, Corie Blount and Sean Rooks, who played a game-high 43 minutes (33 over his season average).
<a href="https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/199704060LAL.html">The Mavericks led 30-17 after the first quarter and 51-37 at halftime</a>. The teams combined to attempt 12 threes in the first half, which most teams would typically combine to do in a quarter today. The Mavericks shot 21 of 44 from the field and outrebounded the Lakers 24-16 while holding L.A. to 12 of 32 shooting.
Bryant and Robert Horry went a combined 2 of 9 off the bench, and Rooks had logged 10 points and 7 boards to that point. Harper and Finley combined for 25 points on 9 of 15 shooting, while Bradley had 9 points and 9 rebounds.
Okay, now let's get to why you&rsquo;re here.
<iframe title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wM2nQTRiUpo" width="100%" height="325" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
Not only did the Mavericks score 2 points in the entire third quarter, but the points came from a pair of Harper free throws with 1:51 left in the quarter. So it took over 10 minutes to even get on the board in this period.
Anyway, the Mavericks shot 0 of 15 from the field for the quarter and missed all 4 of their three-balls. They also had 9 turnovers and only made one substitution over the entire 12 minutes, removing Pack for Sa&scaron;a Danilović about halfway through the third. That meant Green, Harper, Finley and Bradley were each a minus-25 for the quarter, and Pack was a minus-20.
For good measure, the Mavericks third quarter could be summed up like this:
<ul>
<li>Points: 2</li>
<li>Fouls: 3</li>
</ul>
The Lakers outscored the Mavericks 27-2 and still just led 64-53 after three. L.A. shot 10 of 17 in the quarter, made 5 of 7 triples, only needed to pull down 8 rebounds and turned the ball over just twice.
The Mavs outdid their horrific third quarter only 48 seconds into the fourth with two layups. They even cut their deficit to as close as 7 points in garbage time before the Lakers pulled away with a 87-80 win.
Fisher scored 21 points &mdash; not even close to a career-high for him &mdash; but to that point, his highest point tally had been just 14. In fact, the 21 points would remain a career-best mark for Fisher until he netted 26 points on March 13, 2001 in a win over the Boston Celtics four years later.
Sean &ldquo;2019 Bam Adebayo&rdquo; Rooks ended the night with 15 points, 11 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 blocks. Bryant logged about 22 minutes off the bench, netting 13 points on 3 of 9 shooting, also finishing with 3 steals and going a perfect 5 of 5 at the free-throw line.
Harper led the Mavs with 18 points on 6 of 15 shooting. Finley only put up 9 shots in over 34 minutes of play. The next time he put up just 9 shots in that many minutes? <a href="https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/200203310WAS.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">March 31, 2002</a>.
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
So, what ended up happening to these two teams? Glad you asked!
The Lakers finished 56-26 and fourth in the Western Conference, sweeping the Kenny Anderson, Isaiah Rider, and Rasheed Wallace-led Portland Trail Blazers in Round 1. Then, in the West semifinals, L.A. fell to the No. 1 seed Utah Jazz, who eventually lost to the Chicago Bulls in the 1997 NBA Finals. The Lakers still had a few more years of Harris before Phil Jackson eventually came to clean things up prior to the 1999-2002 three-peat era.
The Mavericks finished 24-58 and were actually still fourth in the Midwest Division among seven teams, completing 1996-97 with only the sixth-worst record in the league. Unfortunately, they didn&rsquo;t own their own draft pick, but fortunately, the Celtics &mdash; who had it at No. 6 &mdash; used it on Ron Mercer, so it wasn&rsquo;t an egregious miss.
Tracy McGrady did go No. 9 overall, and the Mavs did settle on Kelvin Cato at No. 15, but they landed with a kid named Dirk Nowitzki in the 1998 NBA Draft after another 20-win season.
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
Looking to go to the hottest concerts, sports, theater &amp; family shows near you? Get 100% guaranteed tickets to more than 125,000 live events from TicketSmarter, the official ticket marketplace of BasketballNews.com. <a href="https://www.ticketsmarter.com/?utm_source=basketballnewscom&amp;utm_medium=tsaff&amp;utm_campaign=referral" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Order online now</a>!

Bryan Fonseca revisits when the Mavericks only mustered a measly 2 points in the third quarter against the Lakers.

Revisiting the time the Mavericks scored just 2 points in a quarter

The Osceola Magic have acquired the returning player rights to Aamir Simms from the Rip City Remix in exchange for returning player rights to Drake Jeffries, the team announced today. Osceola also recently acquired the returning player rights to Mac McClung from the Delaware Blue Coats in exchange for returning player rights to Jeff Dowtin and a second-round pick in the 2024 NBA G League Player Draft.
Simms was acquired by Rip City in the 2023-24 NBA G League Expansion Draft. Simms most recently played for the Denver Nuggets in the 2023 NBA Summer League.
Simms (6-foot-8, 245 pounds) played in 23 games (16 starts) with the Westchester Knicks in the 2021-22 season, averaging 11.2 points, 5.4 rebounds and 1.6 assists in 24.0 minutes per game, while shooting 39.4% from three-point range and 89.3% from the free throw line.&nbsp;
Simms played in 122 games (100 starts) in four seasons at Clemson University (2017-21), averaging 9.2 points and 5.2 rebounds. Simms was named to the All-Atlantic-Coast Conference Third-Team in 2020 and was named to the All-ACC Second-Team in 2022.
McClung (6-foot-2, 185 pounds) played in two games last season with the Philadelphia 76ers, averaging 12.5 points, 5.0 rebounds and 4.5 assists in 20.5 minutes per game. He also appeared in 31 games (28 starts) with Delaware of the NBA G League, averaging 19.8 points, 5.0 assists and 2.6 rebounds in 26.8 minutes per game, helping the Blue Coats capture the 2022-23 NBA G League championship. At NBA All-Star Weekend in Salt Lake City, McClung won the Slam Dunk contest.
After going undrafted in the 2021 NBA Draft, McClung has played in four career NBA regular season games with the Chicago Bulls, L.A. Lakers and 76ers, averaging 8.3 points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.5 assists in 16.3 minutes per game. He has also appeared in 58 career NBA G League outings (55 starts) with South Bay, Windy City and Delaware, averaging 20.6 points, 6.1 assists, 4.6 rebounds and 1.14 steals in 31.1 minutes per game, while shooting 50.7% (425-838) from the floor, 42.7% (123-288) from three-point range and 85.4% (134-157) from the free throw line.
McClung played in 50 career games during two seasons (2018-20) at Georgetown University, averaging 14.2 points, 2.8 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.06 steals in 26.6 minutes per game. During the 2018-19 season, he led all Big East freshmen in scoring and was named to the Big East All-Freshman Team. McClung also played in 29 games during one season (2020-21) at Texas Tech University, averaging 15.5 points, 2.7 rebounds and 2.1 assists in 30.2 minutes per game.
The Orlando Magic's G League affilate recently relocated from Lakeland to Osceola (and they are based in Kissimmee).&nbsp;One of 31 teams in the NBA G League, the Magic recently won the 2021 NBA G League Finals. Last season, the Magic posted a 18-14 record, which was eighth-best in the G League.

The Osceola Magic have acquired the returning player rights to forward Aamir Simms and Mac McClung, the team announced.

Osceola Magic acquire returning player rights to Aamir Simms, Mac McClung

Dallas Wings guard Arike Ogunbowale is the recipient of the WNBA Cares Community Assist award for July. The award recognizes Ogunbowale&rsquo;s efforts towards education reform and dedication to using her platform to uplift female athletes around the world.&nbsp;
As the daughter of two educators, Ogunbowale is passionate about education reform and supporting schools locally and nationally. In July, Ogunbowale led the 2023 Dallas Wings' Teacher Appreciation and Back to School initiatives.
Ahead of the Wings&rsquo; Back to School Night, she surprised teachers at Speer Elementary School &ndash; a public school with 95% of enrolled students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds &ndash; in Arlington, Texas with a renovated teacher&rsquo;s lounge, in partnership with Dwell with Dignity. The refurbished lounge included new furniture and appliances, as well as signed Ogunbowale jerseys. Additionally, one teacher was selected through a contest to have their school supplies list cleared by the Dallas Wings Community Foundation.
Throughout the year, Ogunbowale has supported education reform through a variety of initiatives. Last fall, she served as principal for a day at a local middle school to learn more about the challenges Title I schools experience. She also provided lunch to teachers at a local school during Teacher Appreciation Week.
In recognition of Ogunbowale&rsquo;s efforts, the WNBA will make a $5,000 donation to the Kay Yow Cancer Fund.
Each month during the season, the WNBA Cares Community Assist award recognizes a player who best demonstrates the passion that the league and WNBA players share for giving back to their communities.

Dallas Wings guard Arike Ogunbowale is the recipient of the WNBA's Cares Community Assist award for July.

Arike Ogunbowale wins WNBA Cares Community Assist award for July

The NBA App will stream the SLAM Summer Classic Vol. 5 on Saturday, Aug. 19, adding to the growing list of elite basketball programming available year-round on the new platform.&nbsp; 
The fifth annual basketball showcase at Rucker Park in New York City will feature 28 of the top high-school-age players in the U.S. Headlined by Jaloni Cambridge, Aaliyah Chavez and Kennedy Smith, the girls game tips off at 5 p.m. ET followed by the boys &ndash; featuring top high-school prospects Cooper Flagg, Dylan Harper and Tre Johnson &ndash; streaming at 7 p.m. ET.&nbsp; Additionally, several members of the <a href="https://www.nba.com/news/jr-nba-court-of-leaders-mentorship-program-provides-youth-with-voice" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nba.com/news/jr-nba-court-of-leaders-mentorship-program-provides-youth-with-voice&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1692371005985000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1FeYuKToXVUf2-KpS_2bVH">Jr. NBA Court of Leaders</a>&nbsp;will participate in the event.
The addition of the SLAM Summer Classic is part of the NBA&rsquo;s larger commitment to make the NBA App an all-in-one destination for global basketball programming. Over the past year, premier basketball content available on the app has included select WNBA, Basketball Africa League and NBA G League Ignite games, as well as Nike Elite Youth Basketball League&rsquo;s (EYBL) Peach Jam, Jr. NBA Showcase, LNB Betclic ELITE, top pro-am leagues such as the Drew League, Miami Pro League and AEBL, and more.
The NBA will produce and distribute the SLAM Summer Classic games on the free-to-download&nbsp;<a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/global.nba.com/nba-apps/index.html?_branch_match_id=811567537499273278&amp;_branch_referrer=H4sIAAAAAAAAA8soKSkottLXTywo0MvJzMvWy0tK1EvOz9UH0kAxAF91y5sfAAAA__;!!KLCbKzk!n3wSjvNMSkYR4lKoKVgXircttWOLy-0rXgpTSo-D1MmKcmHzay-SwIoaQ0lokaPc1PDUxBHGW6sN$" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/global.nba.com/nba-apps/index.html?_branch_match_id%3D811567537499273278%26_branch_referrer%3DH4sIAAAAAAAAA8soKSkottLXTywo0MvJzMvWy0tK1EvOz9UH0kAxAF91y5sfAAAA__;!!KLCbKzk!n3wSjvNMSkYR4lKoKVgXircttWOLy-0rXgpTSo-D1MmKcmHzay-SwIoaQ0lokaPc1PDUxBHGW6sN$&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1692371005985000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2emDiwi7_0lf1Yxd60aUby">NBA App</a>&nbsp;and on NBA.com. Below are the full team rosters.&nbsp;
BOYS ROSTER
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td width="354">
Name
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="354">
Ace Bailey (Powder Springs, Ga.)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="354">
Jalil Bethea (Philadelphia, Pa.)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="354">
*AJ Dybantsa (Brockton, Mass.)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="354">
VJ Edgecombe (Brookville, N.Y.)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="354">
*Isaiah Evans (Huntersville, N.C.)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="354">
Cooper Flagg (Newport, Maine)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="354">
Dylan Harper (Ramsey, N.J.)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="354">
Jahki Howard (Atlanta, Ga.)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="354">
Ian Jackson (Bronx, N.Y.)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="354">
Tre Johnson (Dallas, Texas)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="354">
Tahaad Pettiford (Jersey City, N.J.)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="354">
*Jase Richardson (Las Vegas, Nev.)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="354">
Meleek Thomas (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="354">
Robert Wright III&nbsp;(Philadelphia, Pa.)
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
* Member of the Jr. NBA Court of Leaders
&nbsp;
&nbsp;GIRLS ROSTER
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td width="354">
Name
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="354">
Izela Arenas (Chatsworth, Calif.)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="354">
Mikayla Blakes (Somerset, N.J.)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="354">
*Jaloni Cambridge (Nashville, Tenn.)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="354">
Aaliyah Chavez (Lubbock, Texas)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="354">
*Kendall Dudley (Centreville, Va.)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="354">
*Leah Harmon (Washington D.C.)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="354">
Ariel Little (Brooklyn, N.Y.)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="354">
Maddy McDaniel (Upper Marlboro, Md.)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="354">
Me'arah O'Neal (Houston, Texas)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="354">
Mackenly Randolph (Chatsworth, Calif.)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="354">
Kennedy Smith (Etiwanda, Calif.)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="354">
Chloe Spreen (Bedford, Ind.)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="354">
Kennedy Umeh (Owings Mills, Md.)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="354">
Allie Ziebell (Neenah, Wis.)
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
* Member of the Jr. NBA Court of Leaders

The NBA App will stream the SLAM Summer Classic Vol. 5 on Saturday, Aug. 19.

NBA App to stream the SLAM Summer Classic Vol. 5

High-school basketball phenom Cooper Flagg recently made headlines when he announced that he reclassified from the 2025 class to the 2024 class.
He's now the odds-on favorite to go No. 1 overall in the 2025 NBA Draft. But before he sets his sights on the NBA, where will he play next season?
BetOnline has released odds on Flagg's next team, with the Duke Blue Devils emerging as the heavy favorites to land the 6-foot-8 forward. Can the G League Ignite or another college program steal him away from the Duke? Here are the complete odds:
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 53.0017%; height: 147px;" border="1">
<tbody>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="width: 34.724%; height: 22px; text-align: center;">NEXT TEAM</td>
<td style="width: 14.6196%; height: 22px; text-align: center;">ODDS</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="width: 34.724%; height: 22px; text-align: center;">Duke Blue Devils</td>
<td style="width: 14.6196%; height: 22px; text-align: center;">-300</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="width: 34.724%; height: 22px; text-align: center;">G League Ignite</td>
<td style="width: 14.6196%; height: 22px; text-align: center;">+275</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 15px;">
<td style="width: 34.724%; height: 15px; text-align: center;">Michigan State Spartans</td>
<td style="width: 14.6196%; height: 15px; text-align: center;">+900</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="width: 34.724%; height: 22px; text-align: center;">UCLA Bruins</td>
<td style="width: 14.6196%; height: 22px; text-align: center;">+1100</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="width: 34.724%; height: 22px; text-align: center;">Connecticut Huskies</td>
<td style="width: 14.6196%; height: 22px; text-align: center;">+1200</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="width: 34.724%; height: 22px; text-align: center;">Any overseas team in Europe</td>
<td style="width: 14.6196%; height: 22px; text-align: center;">+3300</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
Flagg has received offers from many schools, including Albany, Bryant, UConn, Duke, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Kansas State, Maine, Michigan, Providence, Texas, UCF, UCLA, Villanova and West Virginia. He received his first offer (from Bryant) when he was still in middle school.
While he has plenty of offers, it's worth noting that he has only visited one school: Duke. The Blue Devils are considered the heavy favorites to land Flagg's services.
If Flagg does commit to Duke, he would have a chance to become the latest Blue Devil to be selected No. 1 overall in the NBA Draft, joining Paolo Banchero, Zion Williamson, Kyrie Irving, Elton Brand and Art Heyman.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
After reclassifying, Cooper Flagg is now the odds-on favorite to go No. 1 overall in the 2025 NBA Draft. Where will he play next year? <a href="https://twitter.com/betonline_ag?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@betonline_ag</a> has odds: Duke (-300) G League (+275) Michigan State (+900) UCLA (+1100) UConn (+1200) Overseas (+3300) <a href="https://t.co/iG6IIQxTV1">pic.twitter.com/iG6IIQxTV1</a>
&mdash; Alex Kennedy (@AlexKennedyNBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/AlexKennedyNBA/status/1691849341206495342?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 16, 2023</a></blockquote>

<script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
Flagg is the top-ranked prospect in <a href="https://247sports.com/Season/2024-Basketball/RecruitRankings/?InstitutionGroup=HighSchool/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">247Sports' prospect rankings</a> for the class of 2024. The <a href="https://247sports.com/player/cooper-flagg-46129443/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">experts at 247Sports</a> are also predicting that he will choose Duke.
Flagg is from Newport, ME, but he is currently attending Montverde Academy in Florida.
In 2022, he was named USA Basketball's Male Athlete of the Year, becoming the youngest player to ever win the award after thriving on Team USA's Men's U17 National Team. He was also named Maine's Gatorade Boys Basketball Player of the Year for the 2021-22 season.

The Duke Blue Devils have emerged as the heavy favorites to land Cooper Flagg, who's projected to go No. 1 in the 2025 NBA Draft.

Duke has best odds to land potential 2025 No. 1 pick Cooper Flagg

Today, the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA), Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) and Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) announced their continued partnership in hosting the fifth&nbsp;annual Top 50 Basketball Camp. The camp will take place July 27&ndash;29 at Morehouse College and Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta, GA. &nbsp; The best players from each conference will be featured at the camp in a model like the NBPA's Top 100 Camp. Players at the Top 50 Camp will participate in basketball skill training exercises and attend leadership and life development sessions off the court. &nbsp; "NBPA members have a true appreciation for HBCUs, and the Top 50 Camp is a great way for the NBPA to continue strengthening its connection with the HBCU community," said Purvis Short, the NBPA's Chief of Player Programs. "Our partnership with the SIAC and SWAC has given us a unique opportunity to host a productive learning experience for HBCU athletes to better themselves as men on and off the court." The camp also aims to cultivate and create coaching and talent pipelines for current and retired NBA players exploring the transition into careers in intercollegiate athletics. &nbsp; "The Southwestern Athletic Conference is elated to continue our partnership with the NBPA Top 50 Camp," said SWAC Commissioner Dr. Charles McClelland. "This partnership is an amazing opportunity for our student-athletes to participate in athletic and professional development initiatives that will positively impact them both on and off the court. This event has steadily grown and has quickly become a signature event that our student-athletes look forward to participating in on an annual basis." &nbsp; In addition to skill development and on-court drills, the camp will include a series of highly-competitive scrimmages and games, allowing the players to showcase their talent against the best of their neighboring conference. &nbsp; "I commend the NBPA for its commitment to HBCUs as The Top 50 Camp serves as a basketball combine for our student-athletes to showcase their talents while receiving instruction from current and former NBA players," said SIAC Commissioner Anthony Holloman. &nbsp; Camp participants from the SIAC include:
<table border="0" width="432" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">First Name</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Last Name</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">College or University</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Aziel</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Blackwell</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Kentucky State University</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Devin</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Booker</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Tuskegee University</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Eleik</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Bowles</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Savannah State University</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Gregg</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Boyd II</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Tuskegee University</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Steven</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Dulley</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Tuskegee University</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Ashton</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Hawkins</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Spring Hill College</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Martez</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Jones</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Tuskegee University</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Robert</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Kendrick</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Fort Valley State University</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Kong</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Kong</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Kentucky State University</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Myson</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Lowe</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Fort Valley State University</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Steven</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Lyles</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Spring Hill College</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Chris</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Martin</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Clark Atlanta University</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Joemel</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">McNair</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Morehouse College</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Jamir</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Moore</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Albany State University</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Sean</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Paige</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Central State University</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Ayjay</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Plain</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Savannah State University</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Antwoin</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Reed Jr</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Central State University</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Kerry</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Richardson</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Morehouse College</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Jordan</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Simpson</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Albany State University</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Raevon</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Thomas</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Central State University</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Terin</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Wofford</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Albany State University</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<div>&nbsp; &nbsp; Camp participants from the SWAC include: &nbsp;</div>
<table border="0" width="432" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">First Name</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Last Name</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">College or University</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Chase</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Adams</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Jackson State University</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Jaylen</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Bates</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Florida A&amp;M University</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Eric</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Coleman</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Alabama State</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Zeke</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Cook</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Jackson State university</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Dhashon</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Dyson</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Bethune Cookman University</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Ken</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Evans Jr.</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Jackson State University</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Jeremiah</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Gambrell</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Alcorn State University</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Kolby</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Granger</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Texas Southern University</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Zion</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Harmon</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Bethune Cookman University</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">P. J.</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Henry</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Texas Southern University</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Elijah</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Hulsewe</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Bethune Cookman University</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Byron</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Joshua</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Alcorn State University</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Jeremiah</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Kendall</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Alcorn State University</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">T. J.</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Madlock</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Alabama State</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Romelle</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Mansel</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Jackson State University</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Kylen</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Milton</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">University of Arkansas Pine Bluff</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Zytarious</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Mortle</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Texas Southern University</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Festus</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Ndumanya</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Southern University</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Omari</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Peek</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Alabama A&amp;M</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Dailin</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Smith</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Alabama A&amp;M</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">D. K.</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Thorn</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Alcorn State University</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Cameron</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Tucker</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Alabama A&amp;M</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Ernest (EJ)</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Williams</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Alabama A&amp;M</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Rashad</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Williams</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">University of Arkansas Pine Bluff</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Coltie</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Young</td>
<td nowrap="nowrap">Jackson State University</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

The NBPA, SIAC and SWAC will host the fifth annual Top 50 Basketball Camp from July 27-29 in Atlanta.

NBPA, SIAC and SWAC to host 5th annual Top 50 Basketball Camp

Craig Porter Jr. is one of the most interesting prospects in the 2023 NBA Draft.&nbsp;
The 6-foot-2 guard began his collegiate career as a JUCO player, leading Vincennes (Indiana) to a 62-7 record over two seasons and winning the NJCAA national championship in 2019. After receiving interest from a number of programs (including Indiana, Kansas, UConn, Oregon, Ole Miss, West Virginia, Texas Tech and Indiana State), Porter ultimately transferred to Wichita State.
Over the next three years with the Shockers, Porter would make huge strides and continue his development. Last season, Porter filled the stat sheet, averaging 13.5 points, 6.2 rebounds, 4.9 assists, 1.5 steals, 1.5 blocks and 1.2 threes, while shooting 47.8% from the field and 36.3% from three.&nbsp;
Porter became the first player in school history to lead the team in rebounds, assists, steals and blocks. There aren&rsquo;t many 6-foot-2 point guards who lead their team in blocks, but Porter&rsquo;s motor and 40.5-inch vertical allow him to erase shots regularly. Porter ranks sixth among Wichita State&rsquo;s all-time leaders in career blocks per game (1.08). Last season, he had 11 games with multiple blocks (including a pair of 5-block performances) and 14 games with multiple steals.
Porter is looking forward to starting the next chapter of his unique journey on Thursday night, when he hopes to hear his name called in the 2023 NBA Draft. He says that it&rsquo;s finally starting to sink in that his NBA dream may soon be a reality.
Throughout the pre-draft process, Porter has worked out for the Dallas Mavericks, Golden State Warriors, Boston Celtics, Detroit Pistons, Orlando Magic, Cleveland Cavaliers, Los Angeles Clippers, Miami Heat and Washington Wizards. He&rsquo;s been turning heads in workouts, and he hopes that a team is willing to take a chance on him in the second round.
Darryl Hepburn trained Porter in Tampa after Wichita State's season ended, and he believes the 23-year-old has what it takes to succeed in the NBA.
&ldquo;When he came to Tampa, he was flying way under the radar. But when I did my research on him, I immediately saw that he had a couple signature games against some good teams, so I felt like he was an [NBA] prospect,&rdquo; Hepburn told Basketball News. &ldquo;Since I first laid eyes on him &ndash; a 6-foot-2 guard with long arms &ndash; he impressed me with his athletic ability.&nbsp;
&ldquo;He shot 36% from three, but I saw some room for improvement there. Over the last seven weeks, he showed me that he&rsquo;s a proven shooter. I saw him make a lot of improvements. He went to the Portsmouth Invitational and was one of the best players there. There&rsquo;s a high ceiling for this kid &ndash; a very high ceiling &ndash; and he deserves an opportunity. I think he&rsquo;s going to get drafted.&rdquo;
Basketball News caught up with Porter to discuss his game, player comparisons, unique journey, pre-draft workouts, plan for draft night and much more.
What has the pre-draft process been like for you? I've talked to NBA veterans who say they're glad they never have to go through it again because of how hard it is with all of the workouts and traveling.
Craig Porter Jr.: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s been a lot of traveling, for sure &ndash; going from the east to the west to down south a lot. I mean, it&rsquo;s an interesting process, just getting to see a bunch of different cities and getting to play against a bunch of different prospects and players of all calibers. It&rsquo;s just an experience that you only get to go through once, so I&rsquo;ve just been going through it and just doing everything I can to get into the position that I&rsquo;m in now. But it&rsquo;s been pretty fun.&rdquo;
You have worked out for the Mavs, Warriors, Celtics, Pistons, Magic, Cavaliers, Clippers, Heat and Wizards. What were some of the biggest questions they were asking and what kind of feedback did you get from those teams?
Porter: &ldquo;I would say, at the beginning when I did my first few [workouts], the most questionable thing about my game was whether I could consistently shoot the outside shot. I feel like, as I&rsquo;ve done all of the workouts, everybody has noticed and realized that I can shoot the ball way better than they thought. And my complete game just surprised a lot of people once they saw [me pass] the eye test, I guess. A lot of the feedback has been pretty similar across the board. I&rsquo;ve been honestly doing really well in a lot of my workouts, and a lot of the teams have been saying that they expect me to go somewhere in that second round or, if not there, then for sure [I&rsquo;ll be] a two-way type of player.&rdquo;
Do you think you can be a knockdown shooter in the NBA?
Porter: &ldquo;I definitely think I can. I feel, eventually, [when players read] a lot of the scouting reports and things people go over about me, they won&rsquo;t necessarily see the numbers and think that I&rsquo;ll be able to [shoot], so it&rsquo;ll surprise a lot of people at the beginning. But even with the work I&rsquo;ve been putting in, I&rsquo;ll be able to just shoot the ball more confidently and do it at a high level.&rdquo;
You&rsquo;ve had a unique journey to this point, coming from JUCO, leading your team to a NJCAA national championship and spending five years in college. What was it like taking the JUCO route and what did you learn from it?
Porter: &ldquo;It really just showed me to never take anything for granted and that you have to work for everything you earn in life. Really, JUCO taught me almost everything I know. I mean, I went through just about everything in JUCO &ndash; going through five-hour practices, to Coach having to order us all pizzas after 8 or 9 p.m. because we practiced so long, to wanting to quit because things got so hard and difficult. I mean, it tests you, for sure. I pay a lot of my respects and dues to my coach and teammates there because of the grind we went through there and how it just prepares you. It puts you in a different position, and it prepares you for this level.&rdquo;
<img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://cdn.basketballnews.com/images/story/body/craig_inside.jpg" alt="" width="750" height="396" />
When did you start to realize that playing in the NBA might be a realistic option?&nbsp;
Porter: &ldquo;Honestly, I think it was after my senior year once I was about to sign with my agent Ryan [Straining]. I got a text from him saying that he was going to try his hardest and do everything he could to get me into the Portsmouth Invitational, and this was before I even signed with him. Really, I was unsure of anything I&rsquo;d be able to do. I thought I would&rsquo;ve been an overseas player, for sure. But once he got me into Portsmouth, things have just been taking off and skyrocketing ever since everybody has been able to see me. I give a lot of credit to him for pushing my name so hard.&rdquo;
Each season, you&rsquo;ve made significant strides. From the start of your college career to now, how much do you feel you have grown as a player?&nbsp;
Porter: &ldquo;I think every aspect of my game has just gone to another level, especially the shooting, scoring and rebounding &ndash; pretty much every statistic. I really feel like I was just in a bunch of different roles and being asked [to do] different things on certain teams. But I feel like every role I was put in, I thrived and did everything I was supposed to do. I feel like being prepared for all of those things is really what [allowed] me to do that...
"Like I said, my role kind of changed every year. In JUCO, I went from being a spot-up shooter my freshman year to being the lead guard my second year and really just playing in a bunch of different roles. And the same thing happened at Wichita State. It just put me in a position where I didn&rsquo;t always have to be the person who scores or the person that the defense focuses on, and I just found ways to impact winning. I was the leading rebounder and shot-blocker; I just found ways to get on the court and I just did the extra things that some of the guys on my team didn&rsquo;t, and it just always paid off for me.&rdquo;
You&rsquo;re 23 years old and we know that teams typically fall in love with younger players and their potential during the draft process. But do you feel like there are some advantages to being an older and more experienced prospect?
Porter: &ldquo;I definitely do. I think [my experience] has already prepared me to be a pro and I feel like I&rsquo;m handling myself as a pro, so [I&rsquo;m not dealing with] a lot of the little hiccups that some younger players might have to go through &ndash; like needing a little bit more time to develop or anything off the court. I just feel like with me being older and being through things that they haven&rsquo;t experienced, it just prepared me a little bit more than they are.&rdquo;
Which players would you compare yourself to? Who do you like to study?
Porter: &ldquo;There are a couple players I study. Definitely Lonzo Ball, that&rsquo;s one of my top ones. One of my favorite players growing up was Rajon Rondo, just him being able to do a little bit of everything, even if he couldn&rsquo;t shoot the ball (which I feel like obviously I can do a lot better than him). I mean, just being able to rebound, get his teammates involved and score when needed. Really, those comparisons are probably my top-two, for sure.&rdquo;
If an NBA general manager asked why should they draft you, what would you say?&nbsp;
Porter: &ldquo;I&rsquo;d probably say that I&rsquo;m the type of person who doesn&rsquo;t necessarily need to be &lsquo;the guy&rsquo; or the face of something to impact it. I can impact winning in many different ways. You can throw me in there for one minute and I&rsquo;m going to make a big difference in that one minute or 30 seconds or [however long I&rsquo;m in]. My attention to detail is really high. I&rsquo;m just an older guy who needs a chance. I take this really seriously &ndash; this is honestly my life. Really, being able to show what I can do is life or death to me.&rdquo;
What do you bring to a team off the court? Do you think you can have an impact in the locker room as a leader or glue guy?
Porter: &ldquo;Definitely, I&rsquo;m a pretty calm person and, like I said before, there&rsquo;s almost nothing that I haven&rsquo;t been through. I know what it&rsquo;s like to win, I know what it&rsquo;s like to lose and I know what it&rsquo;s like to go through adversity. Really, my biggest thing is that I&rsquo;m able to lead and get guys to pay attention and listen, even if they&rsquo;re frustrated or whatever. That was one of the things I was challenged on over the last two years, so it&rsquo;s something that I&rsquo;ve definitely developed over the years. But yeah, I&rsquo;m definitely a good person off the court who can help guys keep their mental.&rdquo;
What are your plans for draft night?
Porter: &ldquo;I think I&rsquo;m just going to have some of my family and friends over at my parents&rsquo; house, and we&rsquo;re just going to watch the draft. Hopefully, my name is called. If it&rsquo;s not, we&rsquo;re all still going to hang out and I&rsquo;ll spend some time with my family.&rdquo;

Former Wichita State guard Craig Porter Jr. opens up about his game, the pre-draft process, his NBA player comparison and more.

NBA draft prospect Craig Porter Jr.: 'I impact winning in many different ways'

There&rsquo;s no doubt who the San Antonio Spurs are going to select with the first pick in this year&rsquo;s NBA draft.&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/wembanyama-draft-lottery-nba-b0692a8ee59c2235f2d4f4387266eab7">Victor Wembanyama</a>&nbsp;could have started packing for Texas once the Spurs learned they had won the NBA draft lottery.
But once the&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/wembanyama-wemby-nba-draft-lottery-50308e65f44b8df7a2368c4de17bacff">7-foot-3 French phenom</a>&nbsp;is off the board minutes after the draft begins on June 22, that&rsquo;s when the intrigue will begin.
<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/nba-combine-scoot-henderson-brandon-miller-a55811da32a6f58cafde246b0e602152">Scoot Henderson or Brandon Miller</a>&nbsp;to the Charlotte Hornets at No. 2?
The first edition of the AP&rsquo;s 2023 mock draft says it&rsquo;ll be Miller.
1. SAN ANTONIO SPURS: VICTOR WEMBANYAMA, FORWARD, FRANCE
His combination of a center&rsquo;s size and a guard&rsquo;s shooting and dribbling make the 19-year-old a prospect perhaps unlike any other the NBA has seen. The Spurs won five NBA titles after taking Tim Duncan in 1997 the last time they had the No. 1 pick and dream of a similar impact from Wembanyama.
2. CHARLOTTE HORNETS: BRANDON MILLER, FORWARD, ALABAMA
At 6-9, Miller has the size, versatility and 3-point stroke to make him an ideal player for the modern NBA game. The SEC player of the year and tournament MVP as a freshman, Miller would appear to be a good fit playing with LaMelo Ball, though the Hornets, who played without Miles Bridges last season after an arrest for a domestic violence incident against the mother of his children, may have to weigh a negative reaction if they add Miller, who&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/politics-sports-tuscaloosa-alabama-crimson-tide-top-25-college-basketball-today-39eab4a038324d58910da79372722ad1">delivered the gun used in a fatal shooting.</a>
3. PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS: SCOOT HENDERSON, GUARD, G LEAGUE IGNITE
His athleticism and ability to do it all from the guard spot may have made Henderson the No. 1 pick in many years. This time, he could be part of a trade if the Blazers decide they&rsquo;d prefer to acquire more veteran help around Damian Lillard &mdash; or perhaps Lillard&rsquo;s replacement if they instead decide to build around youth.
4. HOUSTON ROCKETS: AMEN THOMPSON, GUARD, OVERTIME ELITE
At 6-7, Thompson has great size for a guard and the 20-year old showed the ability to step up when it matters most, averaging 17.2 points, 9.2 assists and 7.2 rebounds in the playoffs to lead the City Reapers to the championship last season. The Rockets, after adding Jalen Green and Jabari Smith Jr. in the last two drafts, are positioned to get another good one.
5. DETROIT PISTONS: CAM WHITMORE, FORWARD, VILLANOVA
The Pistons fell to the lowest spot possible in the lottery after finishing with the NBA&rsquo;s worst record and sharing the best odds of landing the No. 1 pick. But getting Whitmore, a versatile wing with a strong build, to add to young pieces such as Cade Cunningham and Jaden Ivey would help ease the sting.
6. ORLANDO MAGIC: AUSAR THOMPSON, FORWARD, OVERTIME ELITE
Amen Thompson&rsquo;s twin brother has been the Overtime Elite regular season and finals MVP the last two seasons and the 6-7 swingman plays big on defense, twice blocking seven shots in a game. The Magic were a team on the rise in the second half of last season and Thompson could help ensure that continues.
7. INDIANA PACERS: JARACE WALKER, FORWARD, HOUSTON
Coming from Houston&rsquo;s rugged program means Walker already plays NBA-ready defense, and the offensive end could come along quickly under Rick Carlisle. At 6-8, 240 pounds, he already has the size and strength to deal with anyone he could face in the frontcourt.
8. WASHINGTON WIZARDS: TAYLOR HENDRICKS, CENTRAL FLORIDA
The 6-9 freshman makes an impact inside and outside on both ends of the floor. He led the American Athletic Conference in blocked shots and shot 39% from 3-point range, becoming the only Division I player last season with at least 60 3-pointers, 55 blocked shots and 35 dunks.
9. UTAH JAZZ: ANTHONY BLACK, GUARD, ARKANSAS
The 6-7 guard seems to have endless energy, playing nearly 35 minutes a game to lead the Southeastern Conference and all 20 minutes in a half 19 times. That included 37 minutes on an injured left ankle in the Razorbacks&rsquo; NCAA Tournament upset of top-seeded Kansas, when he helped hold expected lottery pick Gradey Dick to seven points.
10. DALLAS MAVERICKS: GRADEY DICK, GUARD, KANSAS
Dick made 83 3-pointers, most in Kansas history by a freshman, and the 6-8 forward could get plenty of open looks when Mavericks opponents focus their attention on Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving &mdash; if Irving remains in Dallas. The Mavs went to great lengths to protect their chances of keeping this pick, tanking their final couple games to boost their lottery odds while still in play-in contention,.
11. ORLANDO MAGIC (from Chicago Bulls): KEYONTE GEORGE, GUARD, BAYLOR
The highest-ranked recruit in program history lived up to the billing in his lone college season, scoring 20 or more points 12 times and averaging 15.3 en route to Big 12 freshman of the year honors. The 6-4 guard could provide scoring punch on a team that was 26th in the NBA in points per game.
12. OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER: CASON WALLACE, KENTUCKY
A point guard who takes care of the ball and takes it away from opponents, he was fourth in the SEC in both steals per game and assist-to-turnover ratio. The Thunder already have a Kentucky guard thriving in their backcourt in All-NBA player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
13. TORONTO RAPTORS: NICK SMITH JR., GUARD, ARKANSAS
Played in just 17 games in his lone college season after recovering from a right knee injury, but that was enough to play himself into lottery consideration. At 6-5, Smith can play either guard spot and would improve the backcourt on a Toronto team whose strength was its wings.
14. NEW ORLEANS PELICANS: JORDAN HAWKINS, GUARD, UCONN
Ballhandling still needs improvement, but Hawkins&rsquo; catch-and-shoot ability was one of the biggest reasons the Huskies stormed through the NCAA Tournament to their fifth national title. Now it could help create more driving lanes for Brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson.
15. ATLANTA HAWKS: KOBE BUFKIN, GUARD, MICHIGAN
Massive leap from first to second year of college, averaging 14 points as a sophomore after not starting a game while averaging 3.0 points as a freshman. Next leap is to the NBA, where the 6-4 lefty could quickly be a change-of-pace guard off the bench.
16. UTAH JAZZ (from Minnesota): G.G. JACKSON, FORWARD, SOUTH CAROLINA
Would have been heading to college now &mdash; perhaps as the No. 1 prospect &mdash; before reclassifying last summer to enter a year earlier. Instead, the 6-9 Jackson is on his way to the NBA after scoring in double figures in 25 of his 32 games, averaging 15.4 points.
17. LOS ANGELES LAKERS: JALEN HOOD-SCHIFINO, GUARD, INDIANA
After mixed results with Russell Westbrook and D&rsquo;Angelo Russell last season, the Lakers&rsquo; search for point guard help could lead to Indiana, where Hood-Schifino was the Big Ten freshman of the year. Great size in the backcourt at 6-6 but needs to become a better shooter after hitting only 40% from the field in his lone season.
18. MIAMI HEAT: MAXWELL LEWIS, FORWARD, PEPPERDINE
The Heat&rsquo;s success developing undrafted players &mdash; they have seven on the roster that has made a surprising run to the NBA Finals &mdash; allows them to recover if they miss in the draft. But they might not by looking at the 6-7 Lewis, who made nearly 80% of his free throws and 36% of his 3-point attempts in his two seasons with the Waves.
19. GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS: KRIS MURRAY, FORWARD, IOWA
After averaging 20.2 points &mdash; with a 30-point, 20-rebound game in one outing &mdash; Murray will try to make a similar first-year NBA impact as twin brother Keegan, who after leaving the Hawkeyes became an immediate starter for Sacramento last season and was an All-Rookie first-team selection.
20. HOUSTON ROCKETS (from LA Clippers): BILAL COULIBALY, FORWARD, FRANCE
The Rockets hoped to land Wembanyama after sharing the best odds to win the lottery. They could look here at his teammate with Metropolitans 92, a 6-6 swingman who doesn&rsquo;t score much yet but whose 7-3 wingspan allows him to impact the game on both ends even without doing so.
21. BROOKLYN NETS (from Phoenix): JETT HOWARD, GUARD, MICHIGAN
His willingness to fire from behind the arc makes the freshman a perfect fit for the 3-point happy NBA. The 6-8 freshman made multiple 3-pointers in 24 of his 29 games for Juwan Howard, his father, and hit three or more in almost half of them. Howard made 36.8% of them while averaging 14.2 points
22. BROOKLYN NETS: LEONARD MILLER, FORWARD, G LEAGUE IGNITE
The Nets have needed more scoring punch since trading Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, and Miller looks capable of providing it after averaging 18 points last season. The 6-10 Canadian also averaged nearly 11 rebounds, another area Nets leadership has identified as a priority.
23. PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS (from New York): RAYAN RUPERT, FORWARD, NEW ZEALAND BREAKERS
The native of France would bring coveted defensive abilities, though not much in the way of scoring. Still, it would be hard to pass up a 19-year-old whose 6-7 size allows him to defend any forward or guard position.
24. SACRAMENTO KINGS: DERECK LIVELY II, CENTER, DUKE
Is still limited offensively, but the NBA&rsquo;s highest-scoring team doesn&rsquo;t need points. The Kings need someone to help prevent them, and the 7-1 Lively shows promise as a rebounder and shot blocker, highlighted by 14 boards and eight blocks in a game against rival North Carolina.
25. MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES: TRAYCE JACKSON-DAVIS, FORWARD, INDIANA
Had more than 2,200 points and 1,100 rebounds in one of the most decorated careers in Hoosiers history. But in the one-and-done era, the 23-year-old All-American&rsquo;s age may work against the son of former Indiana Pacers forward Dale Davis.
26. INDIANA PACERS (from Cleveland): JAIME JAQUEZ JR., GUARD, UCLA
The do-everything swingman led the Bruins with 17.8 points and 8.2 rebounds, becoming their first Pac-12 player of the year since Kevin Love in 2008. At 6-7, Jacquez does everything well &mdash; he&rsquo;s No. 8 in UCLA history in both points and steals &mdash; but maybe not any of them at the top NBA level.
27. CHARLOTTE HORNETS (from Denver via New York and Oklahoma City): AMARI BAILEY, GUARD, UCLA
Bailey had a strong finish to his lone college season, averaging 16.7 points on 56% shooting in the Bruins&rsquo; run to the Sweet 16. The Hornets struggle when LaMelo Ball is out, so the 6-5 guard could be appealing to a team that was fourth-worst in the NBA in scoring.
28. UTAH JAZZ (from Philadelphia via Brooklyn): COLBY JONES, GUARD, XAVIER
With three picks in the first round, the Jazz are positioned to bolster a team that hung around the playoff race much longer than expected. The 6-6 Jones, who made 18-of-21 shots in one torrid stretch last season and 9-of-10 3-pointers in another, could be a nice late addition.
29. INDIANA PACERS (from Boston): NOAH CLOWNEY, FORWARD, ALABAMA
Clowney put up nearly eight rebounds and a block per game in his lone college season. At just 210 pounds on his 6-10 frame, he will need to add strength for the battles inside against NBA big men.
30. LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS (from Milwaukee via Houston): DARIQ WHITEHEAD, FORWARD, DUKE
Arrived at Duke as the high school player of the year but a foot injury led to a delayed start to his college career followed by shooting struggles after it finally began. But the 6-7 forward showed enough defensive and 3-point abilities in his limited time to make himself worthy of a first-round spot.

Check out the first 2023 NBA mock draft the Associated Press, which features a bit of a surprise at No. 2 overall.

NBA mock draft: Wembanyama to Spurs at 1, then Miller to Hornets at 2

DENVER (AP) &mdash; Nikola Jokic wasn&rsquo;t supposed to be here. Neither was Jimmy Butler, for that matter.
Jokic was drafted behind 40 other players in 2014. Butler was drafted behind 29 others in 2011. Jokic grew up in Serbia, not even thinking about the NBA. Butler didn&rsquo;t have the easiest upbringing in Texas, then went the junior college route at the start of his journey toward the pros.
Yet here they are in the NBA Finals.
One of them will become a champion for the first time, with Jokic leading the Denver Nuggets and Butler leading the Miami Heat in a matchup that starts Thursday night in Denver, with the Nuggets heavily favored to win it all.
&ldquo;This is going to be the hardest game of our life, and we know that,&rdquo; Jokic said. &ldquo;We are prepared for that. We are prepared for that. So, I think there is no favorite. Definitely, I think we are not favorites in this series. I think they&rsquo;re not either. I think it&rsquo;s just the finals.&rdquo;
The Nuggets &mdash; in the finals for the first time &mdash; had by far the easier road to the title round. They climbed atop the Western Conference standings in mid-December and never fell from that perch, then lived up to that No. 1 seed by going 12-3 in the West playoffs.
Miami &mdash; a seven-time finalist now, seeking a fourth title &mdash; had about the rockiest path to the Rocky Mountains that a team could have. The Heat had to rally in a play-in elimination game just to make the playoffs, knocked out No. 1 overall seed Milwaukee in Round 1, rival New York in Round 2 and then just had to go win a Game 7 in Boston, after nearly wasting a 3-0 lead, to vanquish last season&rsquo;s loss to the Celtics in the East finals.
&ldquo;This is a special group,&rdquo; Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. &ldquo;This group has been able to overcome a lot of different things, handle a lot of adversity, setbacks, things that have not gone the way we wanted them to go. And instead of having that collapse our spirit, it allowed us to develop some fortitude and grit collectively, and give us something to rally around, which was each other.&rdquo;
At 44-38 this season, Miami would tie the worst regular-season record ever by an NBA champion. The Washington Bullets had that record and won the 1978 title. There were 10 teams that finished this season with better records than Miami &mdash; nine of them are no longer playing &mdash; and 589 teams in NBA history that had better regular seasons than the 2022-23 Heat yet still didn&rsquo;t win a title.
They are improbable finalists. Their leader took an improbable path, too. But after stints with Chicago, Philadelphia and Minnesota didn&rsquo;t always go as planned, Butler is now in the finals with Miami for a second time in four years.
&ldquo;I would like to say that I&rsquo;m never rattled. I&rsquo;m very calm,&rdquo; Butler said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m very consistent in everything that I do, whether it&rsquo;s before the game, after the game, during the game, and I think when my guys look at me like that, they follow suit in every single way. I love that about them because they&rsquo;re never shook. No matter what.&rdquo;
It&rsquo;s not about Jokic vs. Butler; both have big-time players around them as well, namely Jamal Murray for Denver and Bam Adebayo for Miami. Jokic and Butler are the two leading scorers left in these playoffs; Jokic is averaging 29.9 points, 13.3 rebounds and 10.3 assists, while Butler is averaging 28.5 per game &mdash; including a playoff-high 56 to help oust the Bucks.
Jokic is a two-time MVP, was in the conversation for a third in a row this year, has seen about every defense imaginable and rarely blinks at any of them. Play off him, he&rsquo;ll shoot and score. Play tight, he&rsquo;ll set up someone for an easier shot. He&rsquo;s as close to fundamental perfection as there might be in the league right now. Not bad for a guy who got drafted while the broadcast was airing a Taco Bell commercial &mdash; true story &mdash; and never thought he&rsquo;d make the NBA when he arrived in the U.S.
&ldquo;With Nikola, it&rsquo;s never about looking backward. It&rsquo;s always about looking forward and challenging himself to become the best player that he can be,&rdquo; Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. &ldquo;Early on, being the best player he could be was not necessarily about a skill set. It was about maturing, growing up, handling adversity, dealing with the referees, getting into the best shape of his life, losing weight. I think once that all happened, that kind of coincided with our rise.&rdquo;
The team that plays at the highest altitude in the NBA &mdash; 5,280 feet above sea level &mdash; has risen to its highest level yet. Jokic is four wins from his first ring. Butler is four wins from the ring he has been talking about getting all year, even when Miami&rsquo;s record didn&rsquo;t exactly suggest the Heat would be here.
But here they are. The West finals MVP in Jokic. The East finals MVP in Butler. The prize they want most is just four wins away.
&ldquo;In a lot of ways, what they have done is unprecedented,&rdquo; Miami forward Kevin Love said. &ldquo;Obviously, they operate in different ways to get the job done. But still, all things considered, I think they&rsquo;re two very underappreciated stars and superstars in this league.&rdquo;

Nikola Jokic wasn’t supposed to be here. Neither was Jimmy Butler, for that matter. Now, they are facing off in the 2023 NBA Finals.

Butler, Jokic lead Heat, Nuggets to NBA Finals after unconventional paths

Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry has been named the 2022-23 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Social Justice Champion, the NBA announced today.
Curry was selected from a group of <a href="https://www.nba.com/news/2023-kareem-abdul-jabbar-finalists-revealed" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nba.com/news/2023-kareem-abdul-jabbar-finalists-revealed&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1684950559417000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0yR7wPqL_AlyY9Kx217W6h">five finalists</a>&nbsp;for his dedication to pursuing social justice and advancing Abdul-Jabbar&rsquo;s life mission to engage, empower and drive equality for individuals and groups who have been historically marginalized or systemically disadvantaged.
Curry prioritizes uplifting communities by fostering equity and creating access to opportunity. As a co-chair of former First Lady Michelle Obama&rsquo;s &ldquo;When We All Vote&rdquo; initiative, Curry uses his platform to drive voter registration, education and turnout, most recently during the 2022 election season. His role encouraged millions of new voters to participate in the political process and make their voices heard through civic engagement. As part of his ongoing voting-related efforts, Curry participated in the National Basketball Social Justice Coalition&rsquo;s &ldquo;Freedom to Vote&rdquo; <a href="https://twitter.com/representus/status/1470182428547244034?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://twitter.com/representus/status/1470182428547244034?s%3D20&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1684950559417000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2xr1diKYJYDyNGBlgPRMQb">social-media campaign</a>&nbsp;to help advocate for the passage of the&nbsp;Freedom to Vote Act in the U.S. Senate. Curry is also committed to raising awareness around issues of community safety, utilizing the Warriors&rsquo; 2023 White House visit to engage directly with President Biden and participate in a White House press briefing with head coach Steve Kerr to publicly address the matter.
Much of Curry&rsquo;s work also focuses on supporting underrepresented groups and reducing barriers to opportunity. In 2022, he graduated from Davidson College and wrote his final thesis on gender equity in sports, an issue that anchors his progressive and innovative ventures across the consumer, entertainment and non-profit spaces. Through UNDERRATED, Curry&rsquo;s lifestyle brand that empowers underrated and underrepresented individuals by opening doors for often-overlooked student-athletes, he creates equity, access and opportunity for basketball and golf athletes around the world to be seen by college recruiters, sports agents and other industry leaders. UNDERRATED has also enabled female athletes to access the same opportunities as their male counterparts, provided scholarships for athletes and offered personal development programming for young people. Among these efforts, Curry committed $6 million in funding to the men&rsquo;s and women&rsquo;s golf team at Howard University, which hadn&rsquo;t been active for 50 years.
Unanimous Media, Curry&rsquo;s multimedia company rooted in the mission to inspire audiences through authentic storytelling, is dedicated to collaborating with underrepresented filmmakers, creators and writers across the entertainment industry.
Through Eat. Learn. Play., Curry&rsquo;s nonprofit co-founded with his wife Ayesha, Curry works to ensure every child in Oakland has access to nutritious food they need to be healthy and thrive, resources to foster a love for learning and reading, and safe places with equitable opportunities to play. With a mission to address and overcome the systemic socio-economic barriers facing underserved communities, Eat. Learn. Play. and its partners continue making a positive impact in the lives of children and families in need. Over the last year, Eat. Learn. Play. has provided over two million meals and 500,000 books to Oakland students, funded over 1,500 teacher-led classroom literacy projects, remodeled four new playspaces complete with multi-sport courts, playgrounds, gardens and murals, and more.
Curry has selected University of San Francisco Institute for Nonviolence and Social Justice, which investigates, illuminates, and advances the theory and practice of transformational nonviolence to confront and overcome injustice and systemic violence and contribute to the just resolution of communal conflict, to receive a $100,000 contribution from the NBA on his behalf.&nbsp;
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m passionate about the work of the University of San Francisco Institute for Nonviolence and Social Justice and its commitment to overcoming injustice and systemic violence through peace,&rdquo; said Curry.&nbsp; &ldquo;As an athlete, I consistently leverage my platform to amplify advocacy and address the pervasive issue of systemic racism. I firmly believe that we must be vocal both on social media and in real life, taking tangible actions to effect real change in our society and for generations to come. Together, with the organization's co-founder and director, Dr. Clarence B. Jones, we have initiated meaningful conversations around social justice with the school's student body, doubled the charity&rsquo;s donations through my foundation Eat. Learn. Play.'s gift matching initiatives, and continued building on its mission in my personal and professional life by holding people accountable and promoting the principles of justice, fairness and equality today, tomorrow and in the future.&rdquo;
The four other finalists &ndash; Memphis Grizzlies forward-center Jaren Jackson Jr., San Antonio Spurs guard Tre Jones, Phoenix Suns guard Chris Paul and Boston Celtics forward Grant Williams &ndash; will each receive $25,000 donations from the NBA to the following social justice organizations of their choosing: VisionC (Williams), The Girls Opportunity Alliance/The Obama Foundation (Jackson), Children's Bereavement Center of South Texas (Jones) and the Social Change Fund United (Paul).
The winner of the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Social Justice Champion award was determined by a selection committee comprised of Abdul-Jabbar and notable social justice leaders Director of The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport Dr. Richard Lapchick, National Urban League President and CEO Marc Morial, UnidosUS President and CEO Janet Murgu&iacute;a, Rise Founder and CEO Amanda Nguyen and NBA Deputy Commissioner and Chief Operating Officer Mark Tatum. This year&rsquo;s youth representative and Jr. NBA Court of Leaders member was Leah Harmon.&nbsp;

Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry has been named the 2022-23 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Social Justice Champion.

Stephen Curry named Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Social Justice Champion

On Tuesday afternoon, the NBA announced the 78 players who are expected to attend the 2023 NBA Draft Combine, which will take place at the Wintrust Arena and Marriott Marquis in Chicago from May 15-21.
Players will have interviews with NBA teams and participate in five-on-five games as well as shooting and strength-and-agility drills. Coverage of the 2023 NBA Draft Combine will begin May 17 on ESPN2 from 2-6 p.m. ET and continues May 18 from 4-8 p.m. ET on ESPN2.
The NBA Draft Combine will also be available on the ESPN App. Strength-and-agility drills and shooting drills will be broadcast live on the NBA App on May 15 from 3-5 p.m. ET.
Additionally, a select number of standout players from the <a href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/nba-g-league-announces-45-draft-prospects-competing-in-g-league-elite-camp" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2023 NBA G League Elite Camp</a>, which takes place May 13-14 at Wintrust Arena, will be invited to participate in the NBA Draft Combine.
Unfortunately, projected No. 1 pick Victor Wembanyama won't be in attendance at the 2023 NBA Draft Combine as he has yet to finish his season overseas with Metropolitans 92.
Below is a list of expected attendees for the 2023 NBA Draft Combine:
<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="312">
Trey Alexander (Creighton)
</td>
<td valign="top" width="354">
Seth Lundy (Penn State)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="312">
Amari Bailey (UCLA)
</td>
<td valign="top" width="354">
Kevin McCullar (Kansas)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="312">
Emoni Bates (Eastern Michigan)
</td>
<td valign="top" width="354">
Mike Miles Jr. (TCU)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="312">
Reece Beekman (Virginia)
</td>
<td valign="top" width="354">
Brandon Miller (Alabama)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="312">
Anthony Black (Arkansas)
</td>
<td valign="top" width="354">
Jordan Miller (Miami)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="312">
Adem Bona (UCLA)
</td>
<td valign="top" width="354">
Leonard Miller (G League Ignite)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="312">
Kobe Brown (Missouri)
</td>
<td valign="top" width="354">
Judah Mintz (Syracuse)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="312">
Kobe Bufkin (Michigan)
</td>
<td valign="top" width="354">
Dillon Mitchell (Texas)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="312">
Toumani Camara (Dayton)
</td>
<td valign="top" width="354">
Omari Moore (San Jose State)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="312">
Sidy Cissoko (G League Ignite)
</td>
<td valign="top" width="354">
Kris Murray (Iowa)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="312">
Jaylen Clark (UCLA)
</td>
<td valign="top" width="354">
Grant Nelson (North Dakota State)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="312">
Noah Clowney (Alabama)
</td>
<td valign="top" width="354">
James Nnaji (Barcelona [Spain] )
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="312">
Ricky Council IV (Arkansas)
</td>
<td valign="top" width="354">
Julian Phillips (Tennessee)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="312">
Gradey Dick (Kansas)
</td>
<td valign="top" width="354">
Jalen Pickett (Penn State)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="312">
Nikola Djurisic (Mega [Serbia] )
</td>
<td valign="top" width="354">
Brandin Podziemski (Santa Clara)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="312">
Zach Edey (Purdue)
</td>
<td valign="top" width="354">
Olivier-Maxence Prosper (Marquette)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="312">
Adam Flagler (Baylor)
</td>
<td valign="top" width="354">
Rayan Rupert (New Zealand Breakers [Oceania] )
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="312">
Keyonte George (Baylor)
</td>
<td valign="top" width="354">
Adama Sanogo (Connecticut)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="312">
Mouhamed Gueye (Washington State)
</td>
<td valign="top" width="354">
Marcus Sasser (Houston)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="312">
Coleman Hawkins (Illinois)
</td>
<td valign="top" width="354">
Brice Sensabaugh (Ohio State)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="312">
Jordan Hawkins (Connecticut)
</td>
<td valign="top" width="354">
Terrence Shannon Jr. (Illinois)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="312">
Scoot Henderson (G League Ignite)
</td>
<td valign="top" width="354">
Ben Sheppard (Belmont)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="312">
Taylor Hendricks (UCF)
</td>
<td valign="top" width="354">
Jalen Slawson (Furman)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="312">
DaRon Holmes II (Dayton)
</td>
<td valign="top" width="354">
Nick Smith Jr. (Arkansas)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="312">
Jalen Hood-Schifino (Indiana)
</td>
<td valign="top" width="354">
Terquavion Smith (North Carolina State)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="312">
Jett Howard (Michigan)
</td>
<td valign="top" width="354">
Julian Strawther (Gonzaga)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="312">
Andre Jackson Jr. (Connecticut)
</td>
<td valign="top" width="354">
Amen Thompson (Overtime Elite)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="312">
GG Jackson II (South Carolina)
</td>
<td valign="top" width="354">
Ausar Thompson (Overtime Elite)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="312">
Trayce Jackson-Davis (Indiana)
</td>
<td valign="top" width="354">
Drew Timme (Gonzaga)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="312">
Jaime Jaquez Jr. (UCLA)
</td>
<td valign="top" width="354">
Oscar Tshiebwe (Kentucky)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="312">
Keyontae Johnson (Kansas State)
</td>
<td valign="top" width="354">
Azuolas Tubelis (Arizona)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="312">
Colby Jones (Xavier)
</td>
<td valign="top" width="354">
Tristan Vukcevic (Partizan [Serbia] )
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="312">
Ryan Kalkbrenner (Creighton)
</td>
<td valign="top" width="354">
Jarace Walker (Houston)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="312">
Arthur Kaluma (Creighton)
</td>
<td valign="top" width="354">
Cason Wallace (Kentucky)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="312">
Mojave King (G League Ignite)
</td>
<td valign="top" width="354">
Jordan Walsh (Arkansas)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="312">
Bobi Klintman (Wake Forest)
</td>
<td valign="top" width="354">
Dariq Whitehead (Duke)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="312">
Maxwell Lewis (Pepperdine)
</td>
<td valign="top" width="354">
Cam Whitmore (Villanova)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="312">
Dereck Lively II (Duke)
</td>
<td valign="top" width="354">
Jalen Wilson (Kansas)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="312">
Chris Livingston (Kentucky)
</td>
<td valign="top" width="354">
Isaiah Wong (Miami)
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

The NBA announced the 78 players who are expected to attend the 2023 NBA Draft Combine.

NBA announces 78 Draft Combine participants, but no Victor Wembanyama

On Friday afternoon, the NBA G League announced the field of 45 prospects from the 2023 NBA Draft who will participate in the 2023 NBA G League Elite Camp, which will take place May 13 and 14 at Wintrust Arena in Chicago.
The NBA G League Elite Camp gives draft prospects an opportunity to display their skills in front of NBA and G League scouts, coaches and front-office executives by playing in five-on-five games and participating in strength-and-agility drills.
Based on performance, select players from the NBA G League Elite Camp will be invited to participate in the NBA Draft Combine, which will be held May 15-21 at Wintrust Arena.
NBA players who have participated in past G League Elite Camps include New Orleans Pelicans guard Jose Alvarado, Indiana Pacers forward Oshae Brissett, Memphis Grizzlies forward Kenneth Lofton Jr. (who won the 2022-23 G League Rookie of the Year award), Los Angeles Clippers guard Terance Mann and Miami Heat guard Max Strus.
Below is a list of attendees for the 2023 NBA G League Elite Camp (although its subject to change):
Bediako, Charles (Alabama) Black, Leaky (North Carolina) Bridges, Jalen (Baylor) Broome, John (Auburn) Bryant, Joe (Norfolk State) Burton, Tyler (Richmond) Campbell, Tyger (UCLA) Castleton, Colin (Florida) Da Silva, Tristan (Colorado) Davis, Antoine (Detroit) Davis, Johnell (FAU) Davis, Kendric (Memphis) Doss, Shaun (Arkansas Pine-Bluff) Evbuomwan, Tosan (Princeton) Fudge, Alex (Florida) Gortman, Jazian (Overtime Elite) Hall, PJ (Clemson) Hart, Hakim (Maryland) Hauser, Joey (Michigan State) Hodge, D&rsquo;Moi (Missouri) James, Josiah-Jordan (Tennessee) Jones, Dillon (Weber State) Kinsey, Taevion (Marshall) Larsson, Pelle (Arizona) Lawrence, Tyrin (Vanderbilt) Martin, Jaylen (Overtime Elite) Mayer, Matthew (Illinois) McConnell, Caleb (Rutgers) Miller, Emanuel (TCU) Murrell, Matthew (Mississippi) Newton, Tristen (Connecticut) Nkamhoua, Olivier (Tennessee) Nolley II, Landers (Cincinnati) Nowell, Markquis (Kansas State) Omier, Norchad (Miami) Omoruyi, Clifford (Rutgers) Peterson, Drew (USC) Reeves, Antonio (Kentucky) Rice, Sir&rsquo;Jabari (Texas) Rodgers, Spencer (Kennesaw State) Sears, Mark (Alabama) Sharavjamts, Mike (Dayton) Stevens, Isaiah (Colorado State) Tyson, Hunter (Clemson) Watson, Anton (Gonzaga)

The NBA G League announced the field of 45 prospects from the 2023 NBA Draft who will attend the 2023 NBA G League Elite Camp.

NBA G League announces 45 prospects competing in G League Elite Camp

The NBA announced that 242 players have filed as early-entry candidates for the 2023 NBA Draft. Here is the complete list.

NBA announces 242 early-entry candidates for 2023 NBA Draft

MEXICO CITY (AP) &mdash; A reggaeton song by Puerto Rican artist Daddy Yankee is blasting through the Arena Ciudad de M&eacute;xico with the lights out while fans wave their cell phones and dance to the rhythm of the music.
Then comes a drumbeat followed by a loud &ldquo;Ca-pi-ta-nes, Ca-pi-ta-nes&rdquo; chant.
Welcome to NBA G League action in Mexico City. And if fans get their wish, the atmosphere at Capitanes&rsquo; games will become the staple for home games of an actual NBA team in the city. It&rsquo;s a longshot but that hasn&rsquo;t dampened the optimism.
When NBA Commissioner Adam Silver visited Mexico in December, he said the Capitanes would give the league a great opportunity to see if Mexico could be considered for a franchise in the future.
So far, it appears the organization is on the right path.
Though the Capitanes lost a three-way tiebreaker and missed the G League playoffs &mdash; the finals begin Tuesday &mdash; they provided some answers to off-court concerns in their first season in Mexico City.
Following their inaugural G League season in Fort Worth, Texas, due to the pandemic, the Capitanes settled into the state-of-the-art Arena Ciudad de Mexico &mdash; a glass-clad facility located in the north part of the city that cost $300 million to build and opened in 2012.
Attendance was a concern, but team president Rodrigo Serratos said the Capitanes top the G League in selling individual tickets and rank fifth in total attendance despite their home arena not being located near downtown Mexico City.
&ldquo;We have a big arena, so we are working with a small set-up, but we have been averaging around 65% of its capacity,&rdquo; Serratos told The Associated Press. &ldquo;So far, it&acute;s been pure magic.&rdquo;
There also are safety concerns about having a permanent team in Mexico City. As recently as Monday, four people were killed in what is believed to have been drug gang-related violence. The killings came less than a week after a U.S. tourist was shot in the leg in the nearby town of Puerto Morelos.
The U.S. State Department issued a travel alert last month warning travelers to &ldquo;exercise increased caution,&rdquo; especially after dark, at Mexico&rsquo;s Caribbean beach resorts like Cancun, Playa del Carmen and Tulum, which have been plagued by drug gang violence in the past.
Alfonzo McKinnie, who played for four NBA teams before coming to the Capitanes, had said before the season ended that he feels comfortable in the city.
&ldquo;Everybody I know from players to family and friends asked me about safety, but we live in Polanco one of the nicest parts of Mexico City and I tell them we are as safe as one can be,&rdquo; McKinnie said.
Several players live in Polanco, one the wealthiest neighborhoods in Mexico City with some of the best restaurants, luxury hotels and expensive condos. The area is also one of the safest in the capital, with a strong police presence day and night. It is where NFL, MLB and NBA teams stay whenever they visit Mexico to play regular season games.
Serratos said McKinnie, along with Kenneth Faried and Gary Clark, are enjoying their experience with the Capitanes while hoping for another NBA opportunity.
&ldquo;All the American players said that they did not expect to find a country like this. The feedback that we are getting from them is that they are very happy and want to keep playing here,&rdquo; said Rodrigo Serratos, the team president. &ldquo;The city offers a lot of things; we are a rich country in experiences for foreigners.&rdquo;
Since 1992, when the Houston Rockets played the Dallas Mavericks, Mexico has hosted 30 NBA games out the 117 that the NBA has played outside of the U.S. and Canada in its history.
Silver has said having a G League team in Mexico City gives the league an opportunity to better understand the challenges that come with dealing with the local culture, a different language and all the other circumstances around possibly having an NBA franchise in the city one day.
Soccer is still king among sports in the country, but there are more basketball courts than soccer fields in Mexico and the fans have shown in the past how loyal they are. Before the Capitanes, the Mexico City Aztecs played in the defunct Continental Basketball Association in 1994 and averaged 9,000 fans a game.
&ldquo;You can call it love, passion or solidarity &mdash; any of those adjectives describe what the basketball culture in this country is, and that is what the NBA has found here,&rdquo; said Raul Zarraga, the director of the NBA office in Mexico.
Besides the reggaeton music that booms during game breaks, there is a fan who brings a drum to cheer for the Capitanes. &ldquo;The Mexicans are very passionate with sports; they are very involved and noisy,&rdquo; Serratos said, adding that the team had to get a special permit from the NBA for the fan&rsquo;s drum. &ldquo;It is a different atmosphere here than in any other G League venue.&rdquo;
Despite the early success of the Capitanes, fans should not expect to see an NBA expansion team in Mexico City anytime soon. The last time the league expanded was in 2004 with a franchise in Charlotte, North Carolina. Before that, the league expanded in 1995 with two teams in Canada.
Other cities, including Las Vegas and Seattle, also could be ahead of Mexico City when and if the NBA considers an expansion in the future.
Until then, fans can continue to party with the Capitanes.

if fans get their wish, the atmosphere at Capitanes’ games will become the staple for home games of an actual NBA team.

NBA in Mexico: G League Capitanes hope they're laying foundation

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) &mdash; Texas reserve guard Arterio Morris, who was allowed to play this season while awaiting trial on a misdemeanor domestic violence charge, has entered the transfer portal, the school confirmed Tuesday.
Morris was one of the top recruits in the country, but struggled for playing time in an experienced lineup for Texas, which advanced to the Elite Eight for the first time since 2008. He averaged 4.7 points and 11.7 minutes and was expected to be a key component for the Longhorns under recently promoted coach Rodney Terry.
Texas fired former coach Chris Beard after his December arrest on a felony domestic violence charge, which was dismissed in February. Beard is now at Mississippi.
Morris was charged with a Class A misdemeanor after a June 2022 altercation with an ex-girlfriend in the Dallas area. Morris&rsquo; attorney, Justin Moore, has said Morris is innocent.
&ldquo;Arterio is thankful for the opportunity he was provided to not only play basketball, but be a student at the University of Texas,&rdquo; Moore said. &ldquo;He is looking forward to continue his education and his progress as a student athlete in the hopes of continuing his playing career after college.&rdquo;
Beard said before the season started that Morris would be allowed to play. Morris kept playing after Terry took over as interim coach.&nbsp;
Morris is the second Longhorn to transfer since Terry was announced as the full-time head coach. Freshman guard Rowan Brumbaugh, who red-shirted last season, announced on social media he&rsquo;s headed to Georgetown.

Morris is the second Longhorn to transfer since Rodney Terry was announced as the full-time head coach.

Arterio Morris to transfer from Texas; still facing assault charge

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) &mdash; Texas commit Ronald Holland had 15 points and USA Basketball rallied in the fourth quarter to beat Team World 90-84 at the Nike Hoop Summit on Saturday night.
Bronny James &mdash; the son of LeBron James, who was in attendance &mdash; made his USA Basketball debut and scored 11 points, including a pair of free throws to seal it with 5.4 seconds remaining.
Holland added nine rebounds, six steals and five assists for the Americans, who got 11 points from Isaiah Collier. Jared McCain, DaJuan Wagner and Justin Edwards each scored 10 points for Team USA.
Mackenzie Mgbako scored 22 points for Team World, which got 17 from Michael Nwoko, 15 from Aden Holloway and 12 from Andrej Stojakovic &mdash; the son of former NBA player Peja Stojakovic.
The U.S. improved to 17-7 against the World teams at the Nike event that dates to 1995.
Mgbako made a fadeaway with 7:56 left to put the World team up 70-69, but the Americans quickly reclaimed the lead and kept it the rest of the way. James made a 3-pointer with 4:54 left to push the USA lead out to six, and Holland had a putback score with 3:00 remaining to make it 86-79.
WOMEN&rsquo;S GAME
TEAM USA 100, TEAM WORLD 79
LSU commit Mikaylah Williams scored 22 points, Notre Dame commit Hannah Hidalgo added 13 and Team USA topped Team World 100-79 in the inaugural women&rsquo;s game of the Nike event.
Connecticut commit Kamorea Arnold, Stanford commit Sunaja Agara and Oklahoma commit Sahara Williams each had 10 points for the Americans, while Hidalgo finished with eight assists and five steals. Texas commit Madison Booker finished with eight points, eight assists, five assists and three steals for Team USA.
Williams was 6 for 7 from 3-point range.
Shaneice Swain &mdash; who is entering the WNBA draft and expects to be picked Monday &mdash; led Team World with 19 points, while Toby Fournier had 18 points with nine rebounds and Nyadiew Puoch scored 16 points.

Both the men and women represented Team USA with victories over Team World on Saturday.

USA Basketball sweeps Team World at Nike Hoop Summit

Louisville&rsquo;s Hailey Van Lith has entered the transfer portal.
The star guard, who finished 12th all-time in scoring at the school with 1,553 points, will graduate in May, earning her degree in finance in three years. She has two years of eligibility left because of the COVID year.
&ldquo;We thank Hailey for her contributions to this program, this school and this community,&rdquo; Louisville coach Jeff Walz said Saturday. &ldquo;She has done everything we have asked of her over the past three years, and we wish her the very best in her final collegiate season and beyond.&rdquo;
Van Lith&rsquo;s final game was close to her home in Washington, where the Cardinals lost to Iowa in the Elite Eight. Van Lith scored 27 points in that 97-83 loss. She averaged 19.7 points, 4.5 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game this season.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s been an honor over the last three years to have had the opportunity to pour my passion and heart into Louisville,&rdquo; Van Lith wrote on Instagram. &ldquo;This city has impacted my life in so many ways and helped shape me into the person I am today. The Louisville community has given to me selflessly. I will never forget your unwavering support.&rdquo;
Louisville picked up transfer guard Jayda Curry from Cal earlier this week. Aneesah Morrow of DePaul, who was a second-team All-American, announced her plans to transfer on social media. She averaged 25.7 points and 12.2 rebounds this season.
Van Lith, Morrow and Curry are three of the big names that have entered the portal this year. There are just under 1,000 Division I women&rsquo;s basketball players in the portal as of Saturday morning, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press. The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because many of the players haven&rsquo;t publicly announced their decisions to transfer.
Stanford&rsquo;s Lauren Betts, who was the consensus No. 1 high school recruit last year, is one of those players in the portal who hasn&rsquo;t publicly announced her decision to transfer. The 6-foot-7 center played in 33 of the Cardinal&rsquo;s 35 games this season, averaging 5.9 points and 3.5 rebounds in just under 10 minutes a game.
Transfers had a big impact on the NCAA Tournament that was won by LSU last Sunday. Angel Reese, who was named the Final Four Most Outstanding Player, transferred to the Tigers from Maryland and Alexis Morris came to LSU in 2021 after spending time at Baylor, Rutgers and Texas A&amp;M.

Lith finished 12th all-time in scoring at Louisville with 1,553 points and has two years of eligibility left due to the COVID year.

Louisville guard Hailey Van Lith enters transfer portal

DALLAS (AP) &mdash; Kyrie Irving sat for the last two games as part of a plan by the Dallas Mavericks to get back a draft pick sent to the New York Knicks in a trade four years ago.
Now they wait to see if the eight-time All-Star will re-sign in free agency, or be a failed two-month rental from a&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/brooklyn-nets-dallas-mavericks-nba-sports-disaster-planning-and-response-7749902360cabe682d60dd63e8b16786" target="_blank" rel="noopener">blockbuster deal with Brooklyn</a>.
&ldquo;I think I said this before, he&rsquo;s at peace,&rdquo; coach Jason Kidd said, striking an optimistic tone after Irving declined to meet with reporters for a season-ending interview. &ldquo;He likes it here.&rdquo;
The Mavs sat Irving and five other regulars in a meaningless, reserve-filled finale against San Antonio on Sunday, losing 138-117 to Sandro Mamukelashvili and the Spurs.
Irving and fellow All-Star Luka Doncic were among those who didn&rsquo;t play with&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/mavericks-playoffs-nba-investigation-tanking-7ac5f76590adafd9df1c7c590a78d346" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dallas being investigated by the NBA</a>&nbsp;for similar roster decisions two days earlier against Chicago.
The Mavericks still had a shot at the final Western Conference play-in spot before blowing an 11-point lead in the fourth quarter of a loss to the Bulls.
The Spurs sat nine players, but they&rsquo;ve been out of contention for months and were already locked in to the best draft lottery odds at 14%, along with Detroit and Houston, in the Victor Wembanyama sweepstakes.
The loss gave Dallas the 10th-worst record and lottery chances of 4.5%, which is part of the reason the NBA opened an investigation when Doncic was pulled early and Irving and four other regulars didn&rsquo;t play at all against Chicago.
The Mavs and Bulls were tied for the 10th-best record going into the game. Dallas gets the pick if it&rsquo;s in the top 10, but otherwise surrenders it to the Knicks from Dallas&rsquo; 2019 trade for Kristaps Porzingis.
The pick would give Dallas a bit of collateral if Irving decides not to re-sign.
The mercurial Irving said when he was introduced in Dallas after the trade that he didn&rsquo;t want to talk about his future until after the season. When that time came, he still wasn&rsquo;t talking.
The Mavs were in the middle of the playoff race when they created the first pair of All-Star starters in franchise history, but Doncic and Irving were just 5-11 together with both missing multiple games because of injuries.
Dallas won its first two games with Irving but went 7-18 the rest of the way, missing the playoffs for the first time since Doncic&rsquo;s rookie year in 2018-19 after reaching the West finals last season.
&ldquo;I know you guys will talk about the record, which is fair and not fair, between the two players of Luka and (Irving),&rdquo; Kidd said. &ldquo;But there&rsquo;s also other participants. So let&rsquo;s put everybody in that fish bowl, not just those two. He&rsquo;s excited to work with Luka. He believes that we have a chance to win.&rdquo;
Doncic has three years remaining before the player option on the $215 million rookie max extension he signed two summers ago. He said he wants to see where the superstar pairing can go.
&ldquo;I wish we could continue that chemistry, relationship,&rdquo; said Doncic, who finished second in the scoring race at a career-best 32.4 points per game. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not going to happen in a day, in a week. It&rsquo;s a building process.&rdquo;
Mamukelashvili had 23 points. Dominick Barlow scored 21 points, and Malaki Branham added 20 for the Spurs.
Rookie Jaden Hardy led Dallas with 25 points, and Theo Pinson had a triple-double with 23 points, 13 rebounds and 12 assists.
The Spurs ended a seven-game losing streak against Dallas, leading by as many as 31 points in the first half.
The Mavericks started three players for the first time this season, with the other two having just eight starts between them. Of the 17 players in the game for both teams, 15 scored in double figures.
TEXAS 3 MISSTEP
The Dallas loss to Chicago clinched the first NBA season in which all three Texas teams missed the playoffs. The Mavs were the last of the three to join the league, in 1980-81.
Houston and San Antonio were buried at the bottom of the West standings for months. The Spurs missed the playoffs for the fourth consecutive season after qualifying the previous 22 years. The Rockets are on a three-year drought.

The Mavs will now shift their focus to Kyrie Irving's free agency and whether he'll re-sign in free agency or be a failed two-month rental from the Nets.

Mavs turn focus to Kyrie Irving after reserve-filled loss to Spurs

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) &mdash; Anthony Edwards had 33 points in 25 minutes and the Minnesota Timberwolves routed San Antonio 151-131, the most points allowed in regulation under Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, on Saturday at the Moody Center.
Minnesota shot 56% on 3-pointers while making a season-high 24 3s.
&ldquo;From the beginning of the game I feel like everybody was hitting and it just carried over,&rdquo; Edwards said.
Karl-Anthony Towns added 22 points, Mike Conley had 20 points and Rudy Gobert had 10 points and 13 rebounds for Minnesota.
The Timberwolves won for the sixth time in nine games. Minnesota will finish no lower than ninth in the Western Conference but still have a chance of finishing eighth ahead of New Orleans, who they host Sunday.
Julian Champagnie had 24 points to lead San Antonio, which will finish with one of the league&rsquo;s three worst records. Keita Bates-Diop added 22 points and Tre Jones had 21 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds.
The Spurs&rsquo; final home game of the season was played in Austin. The Spurs played their final two games at the Moody Center on the campus of the University of Texas as part of the Spurs&rsquo; regional outreach initiative.
San Antonio struggled offensively with its entire starting lineup out with injury except for Jones.
&ldquo;Minnesota was really hot from 3,&rdquo; Popovich said. &ldquo;They must have had close to 25 3s. I mean, big, but guys did well. They had 21 assists in the first half. Played physically, lot of guys got minutes that normally don&rsquo;t get those minutes. Great learning situation for everybody.&rdquo;
Minnesota led by as many as 33 points in the second half after being tied at 35 in the first quarter.
&ldquo;Come out and be aggressive (in the second half)," Edwards said. "Do what we normally do, blow stuff up. In the first half we were just kind of letting them get into their action. Came out and blew stuff up and that pretty much changed the intensity of the game.&rdquo;
TIP-INS
Timberwolves: Minnesota co-owner Alex Rodriguez was sitting courtside near former San Antonio star Tony Parker. Popovich greeted Rodriguez prior to tip-off. &hellip; The Timberwolves split their four-game series with the Spurs this season. The average margin of victory in each game was 12.5 points.
Spurs: Washington scored the most points against San Antonio under Popovich, defeating the Spurs 157-153 in double overtime on Feb. 25, 2022. &hellip; Popovich said the team sent C Zach Collins home after the finger he recently received stitches on began swelling. &ldquo;Looks like some sort of infection,&rdquo; Popovich said. Collins will not play in the Spurs&rsquo; finale Sunday in Dallas. &hellip; Starters Keldon Johnson (sprained right foot), Jeremy Sochan (sore right knee) and Devin Vassell (injury management for left knee) all sat out with injuries. Also missing were reserve wings Doug McDermott (sprained right ankle) and Devonte&rsquo; Graham (left adductor strain). &hellip; San Antonio honored former All-Star LaMarcus Aldridge following the first quarter. Aldridge recently announced his retirement after playing 16 seasons in the league, including 5 1/2 with the Spurs. Aldridge starred at Texas before being drafted by the Portland Trailblazers in 2006. &hellip; San Antonio finished 14-27 at home this season. The Spurs were 16-25 at home last season.
WE&rsquo;LL BE BACK
Popovich said the Spurs are eager to return to Austin after selling out both games at the Moody Center.
The Spurs had 16,023 attend Thursday&rsquo;s game and attracted 16,148 Saturday after allotting more standing-room only tickets.
&ldquo;Obviously, people enjoy it,&rdquo; Popovich said of a return. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s great to see the place packed like that. It&rsquo;s a great town, so hopefully we will be doing it more.&rdquo;
UP NEXT
Timberwolves: Host New Orleans on Sunday.
Spurs: At Dallas on Sunday.

Anthony Edwards had 33 points in 25 minutes and the Minnesota Timberwolves routed the San Antonio Spurs 151-131 on Saturday.

Anthony Edwards scores 33, Timberwolves beat Spurs

Here's the list of NCAA players who have as of April 6 filed for consideration as a candidate for the 2023 WNBA Draft

2023 WNBA Draft: Full list of prospects who have entered

The past two national champions will meet when Connecticut visits Kansas as part of the Big East-Big 12 Battle next season.
The announcement Thursday of the fifth year in the scheduling alliance comes four days after the Huskies beat San Diego State for the NCAA Tournament title. Kansas, the 2022 champ, lost in the second round in a record 33rd consecutive tournament appearance.
The Huskies-Jayhawks meeting highlights the Dec. 1 slate of games. Houston visits Xavier in a meeting of Sweet 16 qualifiers while St. John&rsquo;s will be at West Virginia and Iowa State at DePaul.
The first two games are Nov. 30, with Texas Tech visiting Butler and Elite Eight participant Creighton going to Oklahoma State.
Texas, coming off its first Elite Eight trip since 2008, and Oklahoma are part of the schedule in their final Big 12 season before joining the Southeastern Conference.
The Red River rivals both play Dec. 5, with the Longhorns at Marquette and former coach Shaka Smart while the Sooners are home against Providence.
The other Dec. 5 games are Seton Hall at Baylor and Villanova at Elite Eight qualifier Kansas State. TCU is at Georgetown on Dec. 2.

The past two men's national champions will meet when Connecticut visits Kansas as part of the Big East-Big 12 Battle next season.

UConn-Kansas highlights Big East-Big 12 slate next season

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) &mdash; Keita Bates-Diop had 25 points, Julian Champagnie and Keldon Johnson added 24 points each and the San Antonio Spurs beat the Portland Trail Blazers 129-127 on Thursday night in the first NBA game in Texas&rsquo; capital city.
Tre Jones had 18 points and 10 assists for San Antonio, which is guaranteed to finish with one of the NBA&rsquo;s three-worst records.
Kevin Knox had 24 points to lead Portland and Drew Eubanks added 23 points against his former team. The Trail Blazers have lost seven of eight.
San Antonio erased a seven-point deficit in the final five minutes, hitting three straight 3-pointers in taking a 123-119 lead with 3:09 remaining.
The Spurs are playing their final two home games at the Moody Center in Austin as part of what the franchise has deemed a regional outreach.
Portland was without Damian Lillard, Jerami Grant, Jusuf Nurkic and Anfernee Simons while San Antonio did not have Jeremy Sochan and Devin Vassell.
While the game lacked star power, it did not lack enthusiasm. A sellout crowd roared in appreciation for every Spurs basket, especially when Jones hit a 3-pointer followed by consecutive 3s by Bates-Diop to give the Spurs a lead in the final three minutes.
San Antonio finished 10 for 35 on 3-pointers.
TIP-INS
Trail; Blazers: Lillard (right calf), Nurkic (right knee) and Simmons (right foot) all sat out due to soreness. Grant had a bruised left quadriceps.
Spurs: Coach Gregg Popovich would prefer having Sochan and Vassell in the lineup, &ldquo;but at this point of the year, with their injuries, it doesn&rsquo;t make any sense.&rdquo; ... San Antonio honored former Longhorns point guard T.J. Ford following the first quarter. Ford played nine seasons in the NBA, closing out his career in 2012 with the Spurs.
UP NEXT
Trail Blazers: At Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday.
Spurs: Host Minnesota in Austin on Saturday.

The Spurs beat the Blazers 129-127 on Thursday night in the first NBA game in Texas’ capital city.

Bates-Diop leads Spurs past Blazers in inaugural Austin game

PHOENIX (AP) &mdash; Devin Booker scored 27 points and the Phoenix Suns never trailed, beating the depleted San Antonio Spurs 115-94 on Tuesday night to clinch a playoff spot.
The Suns (44-35) won their sixth in a row, the longest current winning streak in the NBA. With one more victory in the final three games, Phoenix would assure itself of at least the No. 4 seed in the Western Conference and home-court advantage in the first round.
Chris Paul scored 22 points, while Deandre Ayton had 19 points and 11 rebounds. Kevin Durant scored 18 points and reserve Torrey Craig added 15.
The Suns are 7-0 when Durant has been in their lineup.
Malaki Branham led the Spurs with 21 points. Tre Jones scored 20, while Keita Bates-Diop and Sandro Mamukelashvili each had 13.
The Spurs (20-59) only dressed 10 players. They were without their top two scorers, Keldon Johnson (right foot sprain) and Devin Vassell (left knee). Also out for San Antonio were Zach Collins (finger), Jeremy Sochan (right knee soreness) and Romeo Langford (left adductor).
And during Tuesday&rsquo;s game, Doug McDermott played six minutes and limped off with an apparent knee injury. Dominick Barlow was hurt in a fourth-quarter collision, and starter Devonte&rsquo; Graham was helped to the locker room late in the game after hurting his leg.
San Antonio entered the night ranked last in scoring defense, having allowed 122.8 points per game. Phoenix came out roaring, shooting 63% in the first quarter in building a 42-25 lead. That&rsquo;s the most the Suns have scored in the first quarter this season, passing the 40 points against Chicago on March 3.
Booker had 14 points in the first quarter.
The Suns led by as many as 31 points in the second quarter and were up 69-51 at the half. Paul made 7 of 8 shots in the half to lead the Suns with 18 points. Phoenix shot 56% and San Antonio 38 percent, with the Suns outrebounding the Spurs 30-20.
The Spurs got within nine in the third quarter, but by the end of the period Phoenix was back ahead 97-76. Booker scored 13 in the quarter to lead Phoenix.
MUTUAL ADMIRATION
Suns coach Monty Williams played for Gregg Popovich with the Spurs and coached under him as well.
&ldquo;I just enjoy seeing him and I&rsquo;m grateful for the history I have with him,&rdquo; Williams said before the game. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m grateful that I get to tell people outside of basketball that I know Gregg Popovich as a man, as a mentor, as a friend.&rdquo;
Popovich may not have enjoyed Tuesday&rsquo;s result, but he too admires what Williams and the Suns have done.
No matter who&rsquo;s playing, Popovich said of Williams, &ldquo;He&rsquo;s gonna coach. He&rsquo;s going to do the same things, have the same standards, the same accountability. Kick &rsquo;em in the butt when necessary, put an arm around them and love &rsquo;em when necessary. He&rsquo;s a good man.&rdquo;
DURANT, TOO
Popovich coached the Olympic gold-medal team in 2021 and saw Durant from the same bench.
&ldquo;He was great. I love him,&rdquo; Popovich said. &ldquo;How do you stop him? You can&rsquo;t. There&rsquo;s no way you can stop him. Now you can double-team him, and he&rsquo;s smart enough to give it up. No matter what happens, they&rsquo;ll figure out what they need to do.&rdquo;
NEXT
Spurs: Play Portland on Thursday in Austin, Texas.
Suns: Host Denver Thursday.

The Suns (44-35) won their sixth in a row, the longest current winning streak in the NBA.

Suns clinch playoff spot, rout injury-riddled Spurs 115-94

HOUSTON (AP) &mdash; There was a short list of believers in the potential of a rebuilt UConn roster before the season started.
It was made up mostly of the UConn players and coaches themselves.
The team that was among &ldquo;others receiving votes&rdquo; in the first AP poll of the season ended up cutting down nets after the last game &mdash; as sure a sign as any that in the new college landscape reconstituted by the transfer portal and name, image and likeness deals, anything is possible.
For anyone.
The Huskies not only won the title but won it in one of history&rsquo;s most dominating runs through the NCAA Tournament. They won their six games by an average of 20 points, closing it out Monday night with a 76-59 pasting of San Diego State.
&ldquo;We came into the season unranked,&rdquo; coach Dan Hurley said. &ldquo;So we had an edge to us to start the year to prove people wrong.&rdquo;
Nobody could really blame fans and pundits for overlooking UConn, just as it might have been hard to blame them for pumping up North Carolina, a national runner-up the year before that was bringing back the core of its roster.
UConn won the title. UNC didn&rsquo;t even make the tournament.
It&rsquo;s a testament to how quickly things can change in an era that looks more like NFL free agency than anything college sports has ever seen.&nbsp;
Hurley said he went back to work the day after the Huskies lost to New Mexico State in the first round last season and started looking at retooling his roster. The goal was to add more options from the perimeter. So, he got four new players, including Joey Calcaterra (two 3s for 6 points in the final), who had spent four years at University of San Diego, and Tristen Newton (19 points, 10 rebounds), who had spent three years at East Carolina.
Big East coaches still picked UConn to finish fourth in the conference. Even if the talent is there, it&rsquo;s hard to gauge how it might all come together.
The UConn story played out in different ways at different places all across the sport this season, and had a lot to do with a Final Four that included three underdog programs, seeded fifth (SDSU), fifth (Miami) and ninth (Florida Atlantic), that had never made it to the final weekend.
The Aztecs had two new players this year joining two others who came to San Diego State the year before.
Elsewhere, Kansas State was picked last in the Big 12 and ended up three points shy of making the Final Four, with the help of Keyontae Johnson, a transfer from Florida who was named a third-team AP All-American.
Creighton made its own run to the Elite Eight with big help from a transfer from South Dakota State, Baylor Scheierman, who was also getting looks from Duke and other bluebloods.
Texas withstood the midseason firing of its coach and made the Elite Eight with two transfer-portal players: Tyrese Hunter from Iowa State and Sir&rsquo;Jabari Rice from New Mexico State.
Arkansas made its third straight Sweet 16 with a semi-rebuilt roster.
&ldquo;I promise I wouldn&rsquo;t be sitting here if it wasn&rsquo;t for the transfer portal,&rdquo; Razorbacks coach Eric Musselman said earlier in the tournament. &ldquo;Really interesting, because eight years ago, when somebody was transferring, the process was a lot different.&rdquo;
Instead of having to sit out a year, players can now go freely from one school to another. Some coaches find it too destabilizing, too transactional.
No longer, however, is it a matter of faith that veteran teams that stick together &mdash; say, as recently as Villanova&rsquo;s 2018 team that crushed everyone on the way to the title &mdash; have a better chance of winning.
And even though FanDuel Sportsbook is listing UConn (11-1) and Duke (13-1) as the early favorites to win it all next season, there&rsquo;s little reason to put much stock in any &ldquo;way too early&rdquo; looks at next year&rsquo;s top teams.
&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t really know rosters, or how different players are going to fit in,&rdquo; said ESPN analyst Jay Bilas. &ldquo;Will they blossom, will they not? And preseason polls are done for fan interest and nothing else. You can&rsquo;t really predict anything based on those.&rdquo;
Certainly, nobody was picking Florida Atlantic, Miami or San Diego State to make the Final Four back in October.
And UConn with all those new players to win it all? Nobody saw that coming either.
Well, almost nobody.
&ldquo;We knew we were the best team in the tournament going in,&rdquo; Hurley said. &ldquo;We just had to play to our level.&rdquo;

Things can change quickly in an era that looks more like NFL free agency than anything college sports has ever seen.

UConn March Madness steamroller could be start of a new era

HOUSTON (AP) &mdash; The transfer portal. Name, image and likeness deals. Sixth-year seniors. Conference realignment. The ever-shifting prospects of the one-and-done rule.
The once semipredictable ground that underpinned college basketball has been changing at lightning speed over the past 24 months, leaving coaches and their bosses scrambling to adjust to whatever comes next.
The NCAA Tournament closes out Monday when UConn plays San Diego State, and will go down as one of the most unpredictable ever. Unanswered is the question of whether the shifting landscape in college sports was the reason for all bracket madness or simply background noise for an event that is always hard to handicap.
Either way, things are changing and coaches are trying to adjust on the fly.
&ldquo;These might be some of the greatest challenges we&rsquo;re facing with the portal and NIL and just lack of direction and rules and regulations,&rdquo; said Mark Few of Gonzaga, a perennial powerhouse that has reached the Sweet 16 in eight straight seasons.
The four teams that made it to Houston &mdash; Florida Atlantic and Miami saw their seasons end Saturday &mdash; got here in part because they adapted quickly. All four added players from the transfer portal, some of whom were given an extra year of eligibility due to the pandemic, and some of whom were lured by the promise of sponsorship money under the loosely regulated NIL system.&nbsp;
Very few coaches want to go on record saying that allowing players to earn money through NIL or to freely move around in a billion-dollar business that imposes no such restrictions on the coaches themselves is a bad thing.
Few also want to touch on the bottom line of conference realignment, which is placing familiar schools in strange places &mdash; Texas in the Southeastern Conference and UCLA and USC in the Big Ten &mdash; in the service of generating more revenue.
And none want to be painted as dinosaurs who don&rsquo;t believe players should share in the game&rsquo;s considerable financial windfall.
Some, however, concede they are uneasy about the implications of all this.
&ldquo;I wish someone would understand the effect of the system,&rdquo; Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton said. &ldquo;The story is the number of kids who have been adversely affected by the climate as it is today.&rdquo;
Hamilton is not the only coach concerned by a recent NCAA study that showed 43% of Division I athletes who enter the transfer portal &mdash; taking advantage of their newfound ability to switch schools without having to sit out a year &mdash; end up without a place to play.
&ldquo;Is it great that 43% of young people decided to remove themselves from an experience of a lifetime?&rdquo; said UMass coach Frank Martin. &ldquo;People talk about a lot of the great things happening for young students now, but nobody really talks about that.&rdquo;
Now, the one-and-done rule, which used to be considered one of the biggest destabilizers in college sports, is barely a blip on the radar. For most of the past year, the NBA had made it a priority to eliminate the 17-year-old rule from the upcoming collective bargaining agreement. But that got scuttled at the last minute, and the rule will remain.
&ldquo;However it all shakes out, what I want is whatever is best for the kids,&rdquo; said Kentucky coach John Calipari, who for years has embraced the one-and-done system.
Calipari said he&rsquo;s more concerned about &ldquo;27-year-olds playing against 19-year-olds.&rdquo;
&ldquo;I think that&rsquo;s an issue that we&rsquo;re going to have to deal with that we&rsquo;re totally avoiding,&rdquo; he said.
The extra year of eligibility granted because of COVID-19, combined with redshirt years being handed out for varying reasons, has, indeed, extended some players&rsquo; careers into their mid-20s.
Exhibit A: Since the NBA trade deadline last month, the Houston Cougars, who came into the tournament as a No. 1 seed and were ousted in the Sweet 16, had a starting five that was older than the starters for NBA&rsquo;s rebuilding Houston Rockets.
Exhibit B: Including 25-year-old guard Adam Seiko, San Diego State has four key contributors who are in their fifth or sixth year of college.
The NCAA is taking somewhat of a passive approach to all of the issues. It has largely refused to get into the regulation of NIL deals, instead leaving it to state governments to decide. Last week, Congress held the latest in a series of hearings that resolved nothing, even as the NCAA asks for a national standard.
&ldquo;I think one athletic director said that the only truth about NIL is that everybody lies,&rdquo; the NCAA&rsquo;s new president, Charlie Baker, said in a brief interview at the Final Four.
Baker would like to see the creation of a registry of contracts, financial literacy programs for families, a certification process for agents and a uniform standard contract for NIL deals.
For now, though, NIL and the portal have produced a free-for-all.
It played out at FAU, where coach Dusty May said some of his players were being approached while the team was in the middle of its run.
In another instance, after a run to the Sweet 16 last season, Maryland&rsquo;s women lost five players, including two who made it to the Final Four with their new teams this year. (The Terps still made the Elite Eight this year.)
Before the tournament started, Belmont women&rsquo;s coach Jamey Givens, whose Bruins missed the tournament after upsetting Oregon in the first round, last year put a fine point on it, tweeting good luck to all the teams in the tournament &mdash; &ldquo;except for those who have been actively recruiting off our roster all spring.&rdquo;
Martin, a former high school math teacher who got fired at South Carolina five seasons after reaching the Final Four, has long leaned into the importance of athletes getting an education. He is also a realist and an optimist, trying to thread the needle in a rapidly changing landscape.
&ldquo;For the most part, we tend to be fairly intelligent people who adapt,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and we&rsquo;ll figure it out, and we&rsquo;ll adapt, and we&rsquo;ll grow.&rdquo;

The once semipredictable ground that underpinned college basketball has been changing at lightning speed the last two years.

As Final Four closes, basketball on unpredictable ground

Former Indiana Hoosiers coach Bob Knight was hospitalized over the weekend with an undisclosed illness but was not listed as a patient on Monday at two hospitals in Bloomington, Indiana, where he lives.
An email from the university about Knight&rsquo;s health was sent to former Indiana basketball players on Friday asking for prayers and saying the former coach hoped to return home soon.
The university did not have an update on Knight&rsquo;s condition on Monday.
The 82-year-old Knight won three national championships, 11 Big Ten titles and 662 games at Indiana before being fired in September 2000 after he allegedly grabbed a student by the arm in a hallway. The incident violated a zero-tolerance policy instituted by the university following an investigation into accusations of physical and verbal abuse made by former player Neil Reed, who died of a heart attack in 2012.
Texas Tech hired Knight in 2001, and he stayed there until retiring in 2008 with a then-Division I record 902 career wins.
Knight was succeeded by his son, Pat, at Texas Tech and moved back to Bloomington in 2019. Then, after vowing never to return to an Indiana University event, he relented on that promise by attending the Hoosiers&rsquo; game against Purdue in February 2020, joined by dozens of his former players and former Purdue coach Gene Keady.
&nbsp;

Former Indiana Hoosiers coach Bob Knight was hospitalized over the weekend with an undisclosed illness.

Former Hoosiers coach Bob Knight battling undisclosed illness

DALLAS (AP) &mdash; This year&rsquo;s record-breaking women&rsquo;s NCAA Tournament featured breakout stars, upsets and capped off with the flamboyant Kim Mulkey leading LSU to its first basketball championship.
Mulkey&rsquo;s unforgettable outfits were just one of several memorable moments. There was Caitlin Clark&rsquo;s 40-point triple-double in the Elite Eight game, the drama of South Carolina&rsquo;s quest to complete the latest undefeated season and two No. 1 seeds being knock off before the Sweet 16.
It led to the highest attendance ever in the tournament&rsquo;s history to go along with stellar TV ratings in every round. The timing couldn&rsquo;t be better for the sport. It all could lead to women&rsquo;s basketball getting a separate TV deal when the contract expires next summer.
Here&rsquo;s a look at some of the top moments from the tournament:
FIERY FASHIONISTA
Mulkey is never hard to miss on the sideline with her feisty approach and reactions to referees and her players. The coach&rsquo;s flamboyant attire takes her presence to a different level, and her Final Four outfits certainly stood out.
For the national semifinal game, Mulkey arrived in a carnation pink top with a flower-like puffs along the entire sleeves, a designer-made top similar to what her 2-year-old granddaughter wore. Even the LSU mascot was spotted in pink attire.
The coach wore a sparkly, golden, tiger-striped outfit during the championship game. Her team were the golden girls, winning the first basketball championship in school history.
DAZZLING CLARK
Clark set an NCAA Tournament record by scoring 191 points over Iowa&rsquo;s six games, surpassing Sheryl Swoopes&rsquo; 177 points for Texas Tech in 1993 &mdash; and Glen Rice&rsquo;s 184 for Michigan in the 1989 men&rsquo;s tournament.
Before 30 points in the championship game, the 6-foot Iowa-born Clark was the first player in the women&rsquo;s tournament with back-to-back 40-point games. That included her 11th career triple-double in the regional final against Louisville, before another 41 points against previously undefeated South Carolina in the national semifinal game.
HISTORY DENIED
South Carolina was trying to become the 10th women&rsquo;s team to run through a season undefeated and the first school to win consecutive titles since UConn won four straight from 2013-16. The Gamecocks were denied that chance, losing to Iowa in the Final Four behind a stellar effort from Clark.
END OF AN ERA
UConn&rsquo;s run of 14 consecutive Final Four appearance came to an end in the Elite Eight when Ohio State forced the Huskies into 18 first-half turnovers with full-court pressure defense. The Huskies hadn&rsquo;t missed playing in the national semifinals since 2007.
NEW FORMAT
The NCAA changed its regional format this year going to two sites instead of the traditional four. It got strong reviews from players and coaches and fans alike. There ended up being a record attendance for that round with more fans showing up in Seattle &mdash; which had no team within 1,300 miles of the venue &mdash; than Greenville, South Carolina.
&rsquo;CANES WERE COOKING
Miami did more than just be part of history by knocking out No. 1 seed Indiana before the Sweet 16. The Hurricanes under coach Katie Meier ousted Villanova and ended national scoring leader Maddy Siegrist&rsquo;s career to reach the Elite Eight for the first time. The champs from LSU ended Miami&rsquo;s run with a muddy 54-42 win in the regional finals.
THIRST FOR FIRSTS
Virginia Tech was a first-time participant in the Final Four, which had a pair of first-time finalists after LSU beat the top-seeded Hokies and Clark&rsquo;s Hawkeyes ousted undefeated defending national champion South Carolina. It was already guaranteed before the final that the champion would be something other than a No. 1 seed for the first time since 2011.
UPSETTING PERFORMANCES
Stanford and Indiana both fell in the second round becoming the second pair of No. 1 seeds to not make the Sweet 16 since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1994. It also happened in 1998. The Cardinal were stymied on their home court by Mississippi&rsquo;s defense. They never led the second-round game and had their streak of 14 consecutive Sweet 16 appearances ended. The Hoosiers lost at Assembly Hall the next night, when Miami&rsquo;s Destiny Harden made the game-winning shot with 3.5 seconds left.
___
AP Sports Writer Stephen Hawkins and AP Basketball Writer Doug Feinberg contributed to this story.

A look at some of the top moments from the 2023 NCAA Women's Tournament.

Women’s NCAA Tournament features plethora of March Madness

NEW YORK (AP) &mdash; LaMarcus Aldridge announced Friday he is retiring again from the NBA.
Aldridge, 37, initially retired in 2021 after experiencing an irregular heartbeat in the last of five games he played for the Brooklyn Nets that season. He rejoined the Nets five months after announcing his retirement.
The seven-time All-Star was diagnosed with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome &mdash; an abnormality that can cause a rapid heartbeat &mdash; as a rookie in 2007.
Despite the diagnosis, Aldridge was among his era&rsquo;s premier big men. As the second pick out of Texas in the 2006 draft, he averaged 19.1 points and 8.1 rebounds in his career.
Aldridge played his first nine seasons with the Portland Trail Blazers before five years with the San Antonio Spurs and his short time with the Nets.
&ldquo;In the words of TB12, you only get one big, emotional retirement&hellip; so, on that note&hellip;I&rsquo;m thankful for all the memories, family and friends I made throughout my career. It was one hell of a ride and I enjoyed every min!&rdquo; Aldridge wrote on Twitter.
A five-time All-NBA selection, Aldridge was praised by San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich when he first retired as a &ldquo;consummate professional with a unique skill set and a deep respect for the game.&rdquo;

Aldridge was among his era’s premier big men. He averaged 19.1 points and 8.1 rebounds in his career.

LaMarcus Aldridge, 7-time NBA All-Star, announces retirement

HOUSTON (AP) &mdash; Anthony Davis scored 40 points, LeBron James had 18 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds to tie Jason Kidd for fourth place with his 107th triple-double and the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Houston Rockets 134-109 on Sunday night.
The Lakers (40-38) moved two games over .500 and into a tie for seventh with the New Orleans Pelicans in the Western Conference with four games to go. Los Angeles has won six of its last seven games and owns the tiebreaker over the Pelicans.
Davis scored 27 in the first half en route to his first 40-point performance since scoring 55 against the Washington Wizards on Dec. 4 and his third of the season.
Lakers starter D&rsquo;Angelo Russell, who has started every game since being acquired in a three-team trade from the Minnesota Timberwolves on Feb. 9, did not return to play in the second half due to left foot soreness. Russell had six points, four assists and three rebounds in 15 minutes.
In his 13 games with the Lakers, Russell had been averaging 18 points, 6.5 assists and three rebounds.
Alperen Sengun notched his third straight double-double with 18 points and 15 rebounds, Jalen Green scored 24 points and Kevin Porter Jr. chipped in 20 points. Prior to this stretch, Sengun had one double-double over the previous nine games played.
The Lakers owned a 70-60 halftime lead, which the Rockets cut to six with 9:38 to go in the third quarter on a reverse layup by Green.
With 30.3 seconds left in the third quarter, James got a roar from the Lakers fans with an emphatic one-handed tomahawk dunk to bring the Lakers&rsquo; lead back to 16. That was a part of a 20-7 run by Los Angeles to extend the lead to 117-90 with 7:56 to go.
TIP-INS
Lakers: Rui Hachimura scored 20 points and had a season-high 12 rebounds &hellip; Austin Reaves scored 16 points &hellip; Malik Beasley scored 13 points off the bench.
Rockets: All five starters scored in double digits. &hellip; Rockets coach Stephen SIlas received a technical foul with 8:30 left in the game &hellip; Houston Texans new coach DeMeco Ryans was introduced prior to the game and did the Rockets &ldquo;First Shot&rdquo;.
UP NEXT
Lakers: Visit the Utah Jazz on Tuesday night.
Rockets: Host the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday night.

Anthony Davis scored 40 points, LeBron James had 18 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds and the Lakers beat the Rockets 134-109.

Davis has 40, LeBron has triple-double as Lakers beat Rockets

DALLAS (AP) &mdash; Kim Mulkey returned home to Louisiana wanting to bring LSU its first basketball championship. The Hall of Fame coach did just that in only her second year at the school.
Her Tigers used a record offensive performance to beat Caitlin Clark and Iowa 102-85 on Sunday and win the first basketball title, men&rsquo;s or women&rsquo;s, in school history.
&ldquo;I turn around and look at the Final Four banners (in the home arena), nowhere did it say national champion,&rdquo; Mulkey said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s what I came home to do.&rdquo;
The victory made Mulkey the first women&rsquo;s coach to win national titles at two different schools. She won three at Baylor before leaving for LSU two years ago.
&ldquo;Coaches coach a lifetime and this is the fourth time I&rsquo;ve been blessed,&rdquo; Mulkey said. &ldquo;Never in the history of LSU basketball, men or women, has (anybody) ever played for a championship.&rdquo;
The feisty and flamboyantly dressed Mulkey, who wore a sparkly, golden, tiger-striped outfit, now has the third-most national titles behind Geno Auriemma&rsquo;s 11 and Pat Summitt&rsquo;s eight. Mulkey has never lost in a championship game.
&ldquo;My tears are tears of joy,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m so happy for everybody back home in Louisiana.&rdquo;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
LSU dropped 102 POINTS to win its first national title EVER 🐯🔥 <a href="https://t.co/H2ZPuGMj4p">pic.twitter.com/H2ZPuGMj4p</a>
&mdash; BasketballNews.com (@basketbllnews) <a href="https://twitter.com/basketbllnews/status/1642649936503209985?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 2, 2023</a></blockquote>

<script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>

Clark,&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/march-madness-caitlin-clark-player-of-year-ed943aa5f1e86a1bb04505497bd4c9b3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Associated Press national player of the year</a>, couldn&rsquo;t lead the Hawkeyes to their first national title despite one of the greatest individual performances in NCAA Tournament history. The junior finished with 30 points. She scored 40 in the semifinals to&nbsp;knock out unbeaten South Carolina&nbsp;one game after she had the&nbsp;first 40-point triple-double&nbsp;in NCAA history in the Elite Eight.
The dazzling guard set the NCAA record for points in a tournament, passing the 177 that Sheryl Swoopes scored in 1993 en route to leading Texas Tech to the title. Clark ended her tournament with 191.
The 102 points broke the previous high for a championship game, surpassing the 97 that Texas scored against Southern California in 1986.
&ldquo;So much for preaching defense and rebounding,&rdquo; Mulkey said, laughing.
Taking in the game was first lady Jill Biden, who sat in a suite above the court with tennis great Billie Jean King. Mulkey said she hadn&rsquo;t met the first lady yet but told the AP that if the team was invited to the White House, she&rsquo;d go.
Jasmine Carson scored 22 points, Alexis Morris added 21 and Angel Reese had 15 points and 10 rebounds for LSU (34-2).
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s no one-man show around here. When I go down, the next man is up,&rdquo; said Reese, who was honored as the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four. &ldquo;Every single time, every time I go out or Alexis goes out, everybody always comes to step up.&rdquo;
Trailing by 21 points early in the third quarter, Iowa started hitting from the outside to go on a 15-2 run, hitting four 3-pointers and converting a 3-point play to get within 65-57.
The Hawkeyes (31-7) trailed 73-64 with 1:03 left in the third quarter when Clark was called for a technical foul. She swatted the ball away on the floor after a foul call against a teammate. That counted as a personal foul for her, her fourth of the game.
&ldquo;I thought they called it very, very tight,&rdquo; Clark said. &ldquo;Hit with a technical foul for throwing the ball under the basket &mdash; sometimes that&rsquo;s how things go.&rdquo;
Clark played the entire fourth quarter with four fouls but couldn&rsquo;t get the Hawkeyes much closer.
&ldquo;They really played well, they were ready to go. They did a great job. I&rsquo;m just so proud of my team,&rdquo; Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said. &ldquo;This is brutal, it&rsquo;s really tough to walk out of that locker room today and not be able to coach Monika (Czinano) and McKenna (Warnock) again. I&rsquo;m very thankful for the season we had and don&rsquo;t want to take anything away from that.&rdquo;
After Katari Poole hit a 3-pointer in front of the LSU bench, Mulkey started weeping.
&ldquo;With about 1:30 to go, I couldn&rsquo;t hold it. I got very emotional,&rdquo; Mulkey said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s not like me, but I knew we would hold on and win this game. I don&rsquo;t what it was, but I lost it. Very emotional and tears of joy. Don&rsquo;t know if it&rsquo;s the mere fact that we&rsquo;re doing it in my second year back home or that I am back home.&rdquo;
A few seconds later after another LSU basket, Reese taunted Clark by putting her hand in front of her face with a &ldquo;you can&rsquo;t see me&rdquo; gesture and then pointed to her ring finger.
As the final seconds ticked off, Mulkey and Reese hugged, setting off a wild celebration by the Tigers.
The game was tight for the first 15 minutes before Carson got hot from the outside. She made all six of her shots in the second quarter, including four 3-pointers. After one of them, she threw her hands in the air, which Mulkey mimicked on the sidelines.
For good measure, the graduate student banked in a shot just before the halftime buzzer to give the Tigers a 59-42 lead at the break. It was the&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/ncaa-march-madness-lsu-champion-game-iowa-scoring-record-3553732a3f7c830a61337c2f22789496" target="_blank" rel="noopener">most points ever in the first half</a>&nbsp;of a championship game, breaking the record held by Tennessee since 1998.
Before Sunday, Carson had gone scoreless in five of her seven postseason games in her career. She had 11 points in this NCAA Tournament before the finale.
&ldquo;I would definitely say this is the game of my life because I won a national championship on the biggest stage possible in college,&rdquo; Carson said. &ldquo;When I woke up, I just wanted to win &mdash; do anything my team needed in this game, whether it was defense, rebounding, supporting them. I scored tonight and that&rsquo;s what pushed us and got us momentum.&rdquo;

Kim Mulkey’s LSU Tigers used a record offensive performance to beat Caitlin Clark and Iowa 102-85 in the title game on Sunday.

LSU beats Iowa 102-85 to win first national championship

Cinderella teams make for great stories and busted brackets. They don&rsquo;t necessarily make for great television ratings, though.
After getting a dream Final Four field last year, CBS and Turner Sports have something&nbsp;very different this weekend with Florida Atlantic, Miami, San Diego State and Connecticut making it to Houston.
The lack of recognizable names could affect the ratings.
Upsets during the first two weeks have seemingly already taken a toll. The tournament is averaging 9.11 million viewers through the regional finals, which is down 6% from last year. This after the first round on March 16-17 averaged 9.2 million, a record for the most-watched round of 64.
Last year&rsquo;s Final Four of Duke, North Carolina, Kansas and Villanova resonated even with casual fans because it was loaded with national brands. It also included Mike Krzyzewski&rsquo;s final tournament as Duke&rsquo;s coach.
This year&rsquo;s group doesn&rsquo;t have the same cachet.
&ldquo;The public is telling us that they would rather see the bluebloods. The ratings support that,&rdquo; said former CBS Sports president Neal Pilson, who now runs his own sports television consulting company. &ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s because they&rsquo;re not familiar with teams like San Diego State, Miami or FAU. There was relatively little press attention paid to those teams during the year. Connecticut has a history, but they&rsquo;re the only one of the four that really has had national exposure.&rdquo;
College basketball also isn&rsquo;t different from other sports when it comes to marquee teams translating to bigger audiences.
Two of last year&rsquo;s Final Four games rank among the three most-watched college basketball games in cable TV history. The semifinal matchup between North Carolina and Duke averaged 18.5 million on TBS and ranks second, while Kansas&rsquo; comeback victory over North Carolina averaged 18.1 million.
According to Sports Media Watch, which tracked Final Four ratings to 1975, the Baylor-Houston game from two years ago ranks as the least-watched semifinal at 8.36 million (individual semis started being tracked in 2002).
The low for a title game on CBS is 2004, when 17.09 million watched UConn defeat Georgia Tech. The overall low was in 2018 on TBS, when 15.99 million viewed Villanova&rsquo;s win over Michigan. CBS and TBS began alternating Final Fours in 2016.
Another thing that might factor into ratings this year is that Miami and Florida Atlantic are from the same television markets (Miami/West Palm Beach).
There are signs that suggest the viewer drop won&rsquo;t be as bad. Last Sunday&rsquo;s regional final between Miami and Texas on CBS averaged 11.3 million, which was the most-watched basketball game since last year&rsquo;s deciding game of the NBA Finals.
Also, the 2011 semifinal between Butler and Virginia Commonwealth &mdash; the last time two mid-majors met in a Final Four &mdash; was down only 2% from the 2010 early semi, when Butler beat Michigan State.
&ldquo;UConn is a very well-known program but with the other three, that&rsquo;s where the interesting storylines are,&rdquo; said Tag Garson, senior vice president of properties for Wasserman Media Group. &ldquo;There are pundits who said they were seeded on a line that wasn&rsquo;t reflective enough of the type season they had. There are some tremendous players that will be playing this weekend regardless of which team you are talking about.&rdquo;

How will a Final Four consisting of Florida Atlantic, Miami, San Diego State and Connecticut affect March Madness TV ratings?

Lack of big-name teams could take toll on Final Four ratings

Shaka Smart has packed an entire career&rsquo;s worth of experiences into 14 years as a college head coach.
He led VCU to an improbable Final Four as a 30-something wunderkind in 2011, guided mighty Texas to a Big 12 Tournament title during six otherwise tepid years in Austin, and now has turned Marquette into a Big East beast.
It&rsquo;s sometimes easy to forget he&rsquo;s still just 45 years old.
Yet his work with the Golden Eagles this season might have been his best: Picked ninth in the 11-team league by its coaches, they won the regular-season title going away, then beat Xavier to win&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/big-east-marquette-xavier-df67d940335f3a9d69f2f6e7b626beaf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">their first Big East Tournament championship</a>.
That earned Smart the AP coach of the year award Friday. He garnered 24 of 58 votes from a&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/ap-college-basketball-player-of-year-b2820fee259952b664327b49a112f193" target="_blank" rel="noopener">national media panel</a>&nbsp;to edge&nbsp;Kansas State&rsquo;s Jerome Tang, who received 13 votes before guiding the Wildcats to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament, and Houston&rsquo;s Kelvin Sampson, who earned 10 before taking the Cougars to the Sweet 16.
Voting opened after the regular season and closed at the start of the NCAA Tournament, where the No. 2 seed Golden Eagles were&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/march-madness-michigan-state-marquette-izzo-690d24a67256a2bf187353c0bfed577a" target="_blank" rel="noopener">knocked out in the second round</a>&nbsp;by Michigan State and Smart&rsquo;s&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/march-madness-east-regionalmichigan-state-marquette-shaka-smart-405b0ccc948ec1480a2749496b3c5ef8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">longtime mentor, Tom Izzo</a>.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m very grateful to win this award,&rdquo; said Smart, the second Marquette coach to take it home after Hall of Famer Al McGuire in 1971, &ldquo;but obviously it always comes back to the guys you have on your team.
&ldquo;Early on,&rdquo; Smart said, &ldquo;we had a real sense the guys had genuine care and concern for one another, and we had a very good foundation for relationships that we could continue to build on. And over the course of seasons, you go through so many different experiences as a team. And those experiences either bring you closer together or further apart. Our guys did a great job, even through adverse experiences, even through challenges, becoming closer together.&rdquo;
It&rsquo;s hardly surprising such cohesion is what Smart would choose to remember most from a most memorable season.
The native of Madison, Wisconsin, who holds a master&rsquo;s degree in social science from California University of Pennsylvania, long ago earned a reputation for building close bonds with players and a tight-knit camaraderie within his teams.
No matter how high or low the Golden Eagles were this season, those traits carried them through.
&ldquo;Everything that we go through, whether it be the retreat that we went on before the season, all the workouts in the summer, he&rsquo;s preaching his culture,&rdquo; said Tyler Kolek,&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/ap-all-america-mens-basketball-team-2ab037abcde5157ad840f7dcd22cc8a4" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a third-team All-American</a>. &ldquo;And he&rsquo;s showing his leadership every single day, and just trying to impart that on us, and kind of put it in our DNA. Because it&rsquo;s definitely in his DNA.&rdquo;
That&rsquo;s reflected in the way Smart, who&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/nba-basketball-wisconsin-coronavirus-pandemic-texas-longhorns-mens-basketball-972b7ad63710f78f34b9a35797ed031c" target="_blank" rel="noopener">accepted the Marquette job</a>&nbsp;two years ago after an often bumpy tenure at Texas, has rebuilt the Golden Eagles program after it had begun to languish under Steve Wojciechowski.
Sure, Smart landed his share of transfers &mdash; Kolek among them &mdash; in an era in which the portal has become so prevalent. But he largely built a team that finished 29-7 this season around high school recruits, eschewing a quick fix in the hopes of long-term stability. Among those prospects were Kam Jones, their leading scorer, and do-everything forward David Joplin.
&ldquo;He teaches us lots of things about the importance of each other,&rdquo; Joplin said. &ldquo;He lets us know, time and time again, that we can&rsquo;t do anything without each other, but together we can do anything.&rdquo;
That sounds like a decidedly old-school approach to building a college basketball program.
One embraced by a still-youthful head coach.
&ldquo;I think being a head coach has never been more complicated, never been more nuanced, and never more all-encompassing,&rdquo; Smart told the AP in a wide-ranging interview last week. &ldquo;Does that mean it&rsquo;s harder? You could say that.
&ldquo;What makes your job less hard,&rdquo; Smart said, &ldquo;is having a captive audience in your players, and guys that truly understand and own what goes into winning, and that&rsquo;s what we had this past year. But those things just don&rsquo;t happen. There are a lot of steps that have to occur on the part of a lot of people, not just the coach, to get to where you have a winning environment.&rdquo;

After helping Marquette dominate the Big East, Shaka Smart earned the AP men's college basketball coach of the year award.

Marquette’s Shaka Smart voted men’s AP coach of the year

In January, the NBA and NBPA launched <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/nba-all-world/id1632344574" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NBA All-World</a> &ndash; an officially licensed geolocation augmented-reality basketball game with Niantic, the creators of Pok&eacute;mon Go.&nbsp;
Just like with Pok&eacute;mon Go, users are encouraged to explore neighborhoods around the world and encounter today&rsquo;s NBA stars. Users can challenge the NBA players one-on-one, add them to their team, level them up and compete to become the ruler of real-world courts, while also collecting gear from well-known brands (such as adidas, Puma and Todd Snyder).
BasketballNews recently caught up with Marcus Matthews, the senior producer of NBA All-World. Prior to joining Niantic, Matthews spent the last few decades working on various sports video games including the original NBA 2K, NFL 2K, NHL 2K and NBA Action 98.
In this Q&amp;A, Matthews opened up about the inspiration for the game, lessons that Niantic learned from Pok&eacute;mon Go, the future of video games, advice for anyone who wants to work on video games and more.
How did this idea come about and what was the inspiration behind NBA All-World?
Marcus Matthews: &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been at Niantic for about two years now and the inspiration for the game came from our CEO, John Hanke, who is an avid basketball fan. He played high-school basketball in Texas and he&rsquo;d play pick-up regularly in college at Berkeley, and even now since he joined Google and Niantic. At NBA All-Star Weekend, we had a couple of pick-up games with Hanke and other employees. Overall, he&rsquo;s a huge basketball fan. And with Hanke&rsquo;s experience with Google Earth and map-based, location-based gaming, he was always just trying to find a way to bring his love and passion for basketball to this new platform. My background in sports games goes back more than 20 years including being the senior producer on the original NBA 2K and NFL 2K on the Sega Dreamcast. I&rsquo;ve always tried to look at the cutting edge with sports games and not just copy what&rsquo;s already here, but try to move the industry forward.&nbsp;
&ldquo;So when I heard about this opportunity, I was like, &lsquo;Wow, this is amazing.&rsquo; Here we are with this new way of gaming, of turning the real world into a gaming board, literally, and that&rsquo;s the future: connecting the real world with digital bits and integrating them and having all of these novel experiences. And I was like, &lsquo;Nobody has done that in sports. This is an opportunity to once again create a ground-breaking sports gaming experience.&rsquo; And those kinds of opportunities only come around every blue moon, with the right technology, funding, resources and team. And I was like, &lsquo;Yeah, let&rsquo;s jump in. Let&rsquo;s see what we can figure out.&rsquo; So I came in and it was in gestation for probably about a year or two before I got there. My role was just to bring that sports-gaming, basketball experience and merge that with what was already existing, so we could create a novel experience.&rdquo;
When Niantic created Pok&eacute;mon Go, it was a huge success and introduced AR games to a lot of people. Since this game is similar, were there any lessons that you all learned from Pok&eacute;mon Go that helped you while working on NBA All-World?
Matthews: &ldquo;Absolutely. Pok&eacute;mon Go was an absolute overnight success, but there were still some challenges that they ran into. We wanted to make sure that we took the good learnings (from Pok&eacute;mon Go) and try to avoid upfront the negative learnings that come with building something outdoors. Probably the biggest challenge of building any kind of outdoor experience is trying to break that obvious habit of just playing games where you&rsquo;re at. It&rsquo;s not a console, it&rsquo;s mobile, so you have access to the whole world and environment right there on your screen. And our game isn&rsquo;t really a screen-only experience, so we were just trying to get users out of the habit of just doing everything on the screen. We&rsquo;re really trying to connect real-world places with authentic experiences for your player. If there&rsquo;s a bank or ATM in your area, you can go get money for your player in our game. If there&rsquo;s a shoe store near you, you can go get shoes for your character. If there&rsquo;s a clothing store or department store near you, you can go get apparel, shirts and pants for your player. If you&rsquo;re out and about, you want to remember to open up this game because there may be some unique things out in the world that may not be available at your home or your job. There are different things you may discover. That&rsquo;s the main thing: (helping users understand that) it&rsquo;s a whole new way of interacting with the world. We really want to enhance and improve users&rsquo; experience by tying real-world locations to virtual-world locations. We just think that&rsquo;s so novel, so different and so new. I think that&rsquo;s going to be the foundation of a lot of games moving forward.
&ldquo;And the other biggest challenge that we had was probably just the randomness of the real world. With traditional games, when you lay out a world or environment, you have total control over where every object goes and how users are going to interact in it. We had to kind of abstract that out, like, &lsquo;Okay, well we&rsquo;ve got this city that has a lot of real-world game objects that we can use. But when you&rsquo;re in the suburbs or rural areas, there are fewer items for us to tag and for you to interact with &ndash; whether it&rsquo;s a court or a shoe drop or a boost or an energy or an arena pass. Now, we&rsquo;ve got to get a little more creative. How do we balance out the experience for people who live in different kinds of environments in terms of density? We&rsquo;ve been learning a lot and pulled a lot from Pok&eacute;mon Go on those items like real-world game boarding, how to (get) our players out into the world and how to balance that all out. There was definitely a lot that we learned from our other games.&rdquo;
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
NBA All-World hosted some real-world events at All-Star Weekend like a pick-up game and meet-up, where attendees were able to access special content and drops in the game. In the future, I could see this becoming a cool way to reward users who attend NBA games and events. Are you planning to do more stuff like that in the future?
Matthews: &ldquo;Absolutely! That&rsquo;s an automatic in the playbook that we&rsquo;re going to use because that&rsquo;s what makes our game different &ndash; the fact that you can play our game in the world and you can get unique experiences. We can control the drops, and we can allow the user to do all kinds of cool things that you wouldn&rsquo;t normally be able to do in other locations. We want people to go outside and explore and game, so the more live events we can host and get people to engage in, the more powerful it&rsquo;ll be for our game and our audience.&rdquo;
Do you think these augmented-reality games are the future of video games? What do you see as the future of gaming?
Matthews: &ldquo;That&rsquo;s an awesome question. I think it is by far the most realistic, tangible new area of gaming. I think Pok&eacute;mon Go is a perfect example of what can be done because it can be well-monetized and create a great experience that literally hundreds of millions or even a billion people can enjoy. I really feel like AR is proving to be the next wave. But just like there were only console games before mobile games came out, console games are not going away (even though) mobile gaming is growing into its own thing. I think this will be like the third big wave or area of gaming, so we&rsquo;ll have console gaming, more mobile gaming and then this area that&rsquo;s going to expand over the next decade around exploration and connecting digital to the real world, and gaming is going to lead that charge. There will be other apps and experiences that will fall out of that, but the big, main utility that makes business sense is going to be gaming and it&rsquo;s going to become its own vertical. I don&rsquo;t see (AR) replacing anything or eliminating the other categories, I just think it&rsquo;s going to be its own thing alongside the other existing categories.&rdquo;
I know the game is still relatively new, but what&rsquo;s been the reception from the audience?
Matthews: &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been actually pleasantly surprised with the initial media response and consumer response. We've been in the top five on the app stores for free-to-play sports games and we have a 4.8 rating in the app stores. There are numerous things and features that are coming in the future, and we&rsquo;re going to make a big push for next NBA season to really round out the experience, but we&rsquo;re very, very pleased with the initial response. For me, I think the biggest thing is that people realize that the sports-gaming world is different from the Pok&eacute;mon world. We&rsquo;ve made a game that was organically built from the ground up around basketball fans and basketball players, and we&rsquo;ve made that world work. It&rsquo;s not just a straight copy of another game; we&rsquo;ve built this game organically and from the ground up around that.
"And the beauty of basketball is that A) it&rsquo;s played outside and B) it&rsquo;s naturally played in groups of friends. Our game does both very well. When I was growing up in Jacksonville, FL, as a kid, me and my friends would walk to the neighborhood park and go play basketball for a few hours in the summer and hang out. Now, my son does that with his friends. But now, not only is there an opportunity to play real basketball, you can also play this game while you happen to be at the court and see what&rsquo;s around and maybe gain some new players. What we&rsquo;re hoping to do is get people, especially kids, back out to real-world courts to play not just our game but also real basketball. That would be the ultimate impact that I hope this game could have.&rdquo;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
Are you ready to ball? Get into the gameplay of NBA All-World in episode 2 of &ldquo;Beyond The Game.&rdquo; <a href="https://twitter.com/nbaallworld?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NBAAllWorld</a> 🏀 <a href="https://t.co/6Q55ogVuAR">pic.twitter.com/6Q55ogVuAR</a>
&mdash; Niantic (@NianticLabs) <a href="https://twitter.com/NianticLabs/status/1617684389089136641?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 24, 2023</a></blockquote>

<script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>

You mentioned that some new features will be rolled out next season. Can you share any new features that are coming or things that you hope to add to the game?
Matthews: &ldquo;We have a lot of things on the list, but it&rsquo;s too early to say (when they&rsquo;ll be added) in the second half of the year, so I don&rsquo;t want to get into any specifics. We&rsquo;re working through all of the feedback and different ideas that didn&rsquo;t make it at launch. But one feature that we&rsquo;re going to ramp up before next season that&rsquo;s going to be a major push is camera-based AR experiences in the game. We&rsquo;re going to have some things coming down the pike later on this year that are going to expand what I like to call our &lsquo;basketball theme park.&rsquo; This is a platform that can be built on top of, so just like Disney World, we&rsquo;re always going to be expanding the experiences in our park. This game is really a virtual-world game at its core, so we&rsquo;re going to be adding on more pieces and just building on the experience as we go.&rdquo;
This is Niantic&rsquo;s first officially licensed sports game. Are there any plans to launch similar games with other sports leagues?
Matthews: &ldquo;I mean, I wouldn&rsquo;t rule out any expansion of this sports-gaming experience that we developed. To your point, expansion could include other sports. Right now, we&rsquo;re totally focused on making the basketball experience as great as possible, but we&rsquo;re definitely open to future opportunities and expansion.&rdquo;
I saw that Karl-Anthony Towns, Jordan Poole and other players were part of the game&rsquo;s launch. What has been the response or reception from NBA players?&nbsp;
Matthews: &ldquo;I think they&rsquo;re interested. Games like 2K and Madden have been around for 20+ years and the players who grew up on those are always looking for the next thing, and everyone was aware of Pok&eacute;mon Go and its success. So, yeah, Jordan Poole, Karl-Anthony Towns and those guys have been really interested in how their player looks, what their player&rsquo;s moves are, when we&rsquo;re going to update it to add more moves, so they&rsquo;re really interested in the world and how they&rsquo;re represented. Today, not only do people care about their real-world representation, they really care about their virtual representation. They want to make sure that the player looks and moves like they move. We&rsquo;ve gotten really good buy-in (from players) and I&rsquo;m very confident that as we add onto this game, we&rsquo;re going to get more and more players engaging and wanting their likenesses and movements to be part of the experience. And that&rsquo;s the beauty of this, it&rsquo;s a system that&rsquo;s set up to scale and be built upon, and we&rsquo;re going to relish that.&rdquo;
<div class="mceNonEditable"><spike>&nbsp;</spike></div>
You&rsquo;ve had a very successful career and worked on some incredible games. What advice would you give to someone who wants to work on video games?
Matthews: &ldquo;I give talks at high schools and colleges about breaking into the video-game industry and I went to Georgia Tech, even though Atlanta isn&rsquo;t known as a video-game hub. But ever since middle school, I was coding with friends and trying to make games on my own. When I got to college in the early &lsquo;90s, there wasn&rsquo;t any kind of video-game major or anything like that. This was actually before the internet really kicked in. But I was really passionate about making games, it was just something innate in me. So whenever I had a class project or assignment that was flexible, I would try to do it around video games. In my spare time, I would start designing sports video games because I love sports, I love games and technology. I would just play around with my own gaming ideas. Luckily, in Atlanta, there was an education games company there, so after I graduated, I figured, &lsquo;That&rsquo;s close enough. I&rsquo;d rather do that than be a consultant or an engineer at a plant or something.&rsquo; So I went with my passion; I didn&rsquo;t know where it was going to take me. Then, after work, I&rsquo;d just work on my own sports-game designs and I started working on a prototype with some friends.
"This is an entertainment business, so it&rsquo;s kind of like movies and music where you kinda have to do short films or demos to showcase your talent. And when people see that, they see that you can help them. So I was working on my designs and saw that there were some weaknesses with the current sports games. They didn&rsquo;t feel like the folks who actually played sports were programming and designing them. So, I did a lot of work and then got lucky. A friend of mine went from IBM to Sega and a couple years later, they needed a sports producer and he reached out: &lsquo;Hey Marcus, I know you&rsquo;ve been working on these sports-game designs and doing all of this stuff on the side.&rsquo; I sent my resume to the head of sports and got flown out for an interview. We talked for two-and-a-half hours and I told him everything that was wrong with the games and how I would improve them, and two weeks later, they hired me.
"But it took five or six years or more of working on designs on my own time and just diving into the space and waiting for the right opportunity. I was going to all of the conferences back then like GDC (when it had just started) and E3 and just networking to try and get that big break. It&rsquo;s a tough business to break into &ndash; especially being in Atlanta &ndash; but you have to do the extra work. Don&rsquo;t think you can just go to school, get your degree and then work on sports games. It&rsquo;s going to take more than that &ndash; whether you&rsquo;re an artist, a programmer, a producer or a designer.&rdquo;
<a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/nba-all-world/id1632344574" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NBA All-World</a> is available now in the app store and it's free to play.

NBA All-World senior producer Marcus Matthews opens up about the game, lessons from Pokémon Go, the future of gaming and more.

NBA meets Pokémon Go: Inside the augmented-reality game NBA All-World

Ticket prices on the secondary market are substantially higher for the women&rsquo;s Final Four than for the men.
The women play in a much smaller venue, but they also have more recognizable names in the their Final Four. Only UConn on the men&rsquo;s side is anything close to a traditional power.
One of the women&rsquo;s stars is Iowa&rsquo;s Caitlin Clark, who was honored as the&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://www.basketballnews.com/stories/iowas-caitlin-clark-wins-ap-player-of-the-year" target="_blank" rel="noopener">AP Player of the Year</a>&nbsp;on Thursday.
&ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s pretty incredible,&rdquo; Clark said of the difference in ticket prices. &ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s starting to get the viewership, the attention, things like that that it deserves. When people really turn on the TV or sit in the seat, they understand how good the product is and how much fun it is to watch.&rdquo;
An all-session ticket for the women&rsquo;s Final Four was at least $475 on StubHub and $335 on Vivid Seats, before fees, as of 3 p.m. EDT Thursday. Men&rsquo;s all-sessions tickets were going for at least $65 and $66, respectively.
The women&rsquo;s semifinals on Friday, which is headlined by the matchup of Clark&rsquo;s Hawkeyes against undefeated, top-ranked and defending champion South Carolina, start at $222 on StubHub and $184 on Vivid Seats. That compares to $45 and $44 for Saturday&rsquo;s semifinals on the men&rsquo;s side.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s been building towards this for a long time,&rdquo; South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said. &ldquo;Fortunately for us &mdash; not just South Carolina, but us as women&rsquo;s basketball &mdash; we&rsquo;ve got a lot of star power behind our sport.&rdquo;
Tickets for Sunday&rsquo;s women&rsquo;s championship game begin at $167 on StubHub and $131 on Vivid Seats, and Monday&rsquo;s men&rsquo;s title game is at $45 and $37.
The men are playing in Houston&rsquo;s NRG Stadium, home of the NFL&rsquo;s Texans, which seats close to 75,000. The women are at Dallas&rsquo; American Airlines Center, home of the NBA&rsquo;s Mavericks and NHL&rsquo;s Stars, which has nearly 20,000 seats.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s pretty neat that it&rsquo;s sold out,&rdquo; LSU coach Kim Mulkey said. &ldquo;The cheapest ticket is more expensive than the cheapest ticket in Houston for the men&rsquo;s Final Four. I thought that was eye-catching.&rdquo;

Tickets prices on the secondary market are substantially higher for the women’s Final Four than for the men's Final Four.

Women’s Final Four secondary ticket market outpaces men’s

Alabama All-American forward Brandon Miller is heading to the NBA after displaying versatile talent and athleticism in a lone season of college ball that was&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/march-madness-alabama-shooting-miller-214390b7386a67e2b644c08c992759e2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">blemished by revelations</a>&nbsp;he was present at a fatal shooting in January near campus.
ESPN first reported on Miller&rsquo;s decision, and a person with knowledge of the situation confirmed the report to The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because Miller hadn&rsquo;t yet made an official declaration for the draft.
The 6-foot-9, 200-pound freshman, who was one of the nation&rsquo;s top high school recruits, is projected as a potential top 5 draft pick.
Miller displayed his accurate 3-point shooting and athleticism in the most productive season of any freshman in Alabama history. He led the Tide to their first No. 1 ranking in 20 years and first No. 1 NCAA Tournament seed.
Miller averaged 18.8 points and 8.2 rebounds while hitting 38% from 3-point range. But he&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/march-madness-alabama-miller-texas-corpus-christi-9f904c350cbb1d3e84f085a8ca782a5e" target="_blank" rel="noopener">was scoreless</a> in his first March Madness game, and went 3 of 19 and scored just nine points in a Sweet 16 <a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/march-madness-alabama-miller-sdsu-50863e3631280275790fb1dcd3d69d4f" target="_blank" rel="noopener">loss to San Diego State</a>.
Miller was described as a cooperating witness after the Jan. 15 shooting and was never charged with a crime.
But he and the Tide were dogged by off-court questions for the final two months of the season. Former Alabama player Darius Miles and another man were charged with capital murder in the fatal shooting of 23-year-old Jamea Harris, who was killed in early on Jan. 15.
Miller and fellow freshman Jaden Bradley were placed at the scene as well.&nbsp;<a class="paragraph-link" href="https://apnews.com/article/politics-sports-crime-alabama-crimson-tide-top-25-college-basketball-today-b7fb03d271a2fb7a99076f34e2565b08" target="_blank" rel="noopener">According to police testimony</a>, Miller brought Miles his gun. Miller&rsquo;s attorney said the Tide forward was on his way to pick Miles up when Miles texted asking him to bring the weapon, but that Miller never handled the gun and didn&rsquo;t know any criminal activity was intended.
Miller received threats after the news came out, and was accompanied by a university-provided security guard. &ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t bother me,&rdquo; Miller said of the threats at the NCAA regional in Birmingham, Alabama, &ldquo;I send it to the right people and they handle it.&rdquo;
Alabama finished the season 31-6 and won the Southeastern Conference regular-season and tournament titles.

All-American forward Brandon Miller is heading to the NBA after displaying versatile talent and athleticism in his lone college season.

Alabama’s Brandon Miller declares for 2023 NBA Draft

CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) &mdash; Jordan Miller took 20 shots in the regional final for Miami and made them all, helping the Hurricanes rally their way into the Final Four. The personification of clutch.
Fitting.
A guy named Clutch is why he&rsquo;s at Miami, why Miller has become one of the stars of March Madness &mdash; and why the Hurricanes are one of the four men&rsquo;s teams lucky enough to head to Houston this weekend and see their season stretch into April.
It was around this time two years ago when Miami then-assistant coach Bill Courtney&rsquo;s phone rang with news that Miller had entered the transfer portal and was leaving George Mason. Courtney dove into some tape and began looking into Miller&rsquo;s background. Turns out, one of Courtney&rsquo;s old pickup-game buddies from Virginia &mdash; Clutch, real name Gary Collins &mdash; was Miller&rsquo;s AAU coach.
&ldquo;The recruitment got pretty simple from there,&rdquo; said Courtney, now the Hurricanes&rsquo; associate head coach.
Good thing that recruitment went the way it did, because Miami has needed Miller this season &mdash; never more than it did on Sunday. Miller was 7 for 7 from the field and 13 for 13 from the foul line in Miami&rsquo;s 88-81 win over Texas, a victory that sent the Hurricanes (29-7) into Saturday&rsquo;s national semifinals against UConn (29-8). For the season, Miller is averaging 15.4 points and 6.1 rebounds per game, second-most for Miami in both categories.
He helped the Hurricans get to the Elite Eight last season &mdash; and at least one step further this season.
&ldquo;That loss sat with me for a really, really long time,&rdquo; Miller said of the defeat to eventual national champion Kansas in last year&rsquo;s tournament. &ldquo;I had to put it in the past because it was a new season, but having the opportunity to kind of right your wrongs almost and get past something that stumped you previously is a great feeling.&rdquo;
The 20-for-20 combined shooting effort from the field and the line against Texas matched Christian Laettner&rsquo;s historic game for Duke against Kentucky in a regional final in 1992. Laettner &mdash; who went 10 for 10 from both the field and the line in that game &mdash; tweeted congratulations to Miller on Monday; Miller responded with &ldquo;Appreciate you! Glad to join some elite company.&rdquo;
There is rich irony in that Miller came to Miami from George Mason &mdash; as did Hurricanes coach Jim Larra&ntilde;aga, who took that school to the Final Four in 2006 and got Miami to the Final Four on exactly the 17th anniversary of that win.
&ldquo;I just asked Jordan to ask the people at George Mason who know what kind of coach I am if he&rsquo;d fit in my program,&rdquo; Larra&ntilde;aga said. &ldquo;And a lot of them told him, &lsquo;Yeah, you should go play for Coach L.&rsquo; I was so impressed with him as an individual. You know, the basketball ability is one thing but his personality, his work ethic, his basketball IQ made me feel like &lsquo;OK, this kid will fit in really, really well.&rsquo; I had no idea he was this good.&rdquo;
The Hurricanes were even talking to other players &mdash; frankly, with better numbers &mdash; than Miller had when he entered the portal. Had it not been for Clutch, it&rsquo;s extremely likely that Miami would have gone in a different direction. And then who knows how this season would have turned out for Miller or the Hurricanes.
&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know if anyone expected this,&rdquo; Courtney said. &ldquo;Clutch was the only one who told me he could be this.&rdquo;
Larra&ntilde;aga doesn&rsquo;t think many people know how good Miller is. He calls the 6-foot-7, 195-pound wing &ldquo;the most underrated player in the country.&rdquo;
That moniker might not hold up anymore, especially not after the show Miller put on on Sunday. The 27 points might be a breakout of sorts; it was the second-best scoring effort of his 141-game collegiate career, and by far the most points he&rsquo;s managed in a postseason game at either George Mason or Miami.
Larra&ntilde;aga essentially challenged Miller when last season ended to be this guy.
&ldquo;I sat down and talked to Jordan before this season began. I just said to him: &lsquo;Your role is going to completely change. We&rsquo;re going to expand it,&rsquo;&rdquo; Larra&ntilde;aga said. &ldquo;He asked me one question: &lsquo;Hey, if I get a defensive rebound, can I push it in transition, dribble it up the court?&rsquo; I asked him one question: &lsquo;Are you going to turn the ball over?&rsquo; And he said &lsquo;No.&rsquo; I said, &lsquo;Then you can do it.&rsquo;&rdquo;
They chart everything in every practice at Miami, as is the case at many schools, and Larra&ntilde;aga quickly became enthralled by the idea of Miller getting his way &mdash; grabbing a rebound like a big guy, then heading downcourt like a guard. For every turnover he had in scrimmages, he had seven assists. Such a ratio is absurd for point guards; for wings and combo players like Miller, it&rsquo;s unheard of. During the season, it&rsquo;s still a very respectable 2:1.
&ldquo;He&rsquo;s underrated because he&rsquo;s under been under the radar,&rdquo; Larra&ntilde;aga said. &ldquo;People just haven&rsquo;t seen him to understand how good he is. I think he showed the country how good he is these past two weeks.&rdquo;
Indeed, thanks to Clutch, he&rsquo;s been clutch. And Clutch is heading to Houston this weekend, to see if Miller and Miami can grab a national championship. The underrated kid might end up standing tallest of all.

A guy named Clutch is why Jordan Miller is at Miami, and is a big reason why he has become one of the stars of March Madness.

A ‘Clutch’ tip helps Miller, Miami reach first Final Four

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) &mdash; Rodney Terry held Texas together in crisis. Then he took the Longhorns on their deepest NCAA Tournament run in 15 years.
His reward: Texas removed the &ldquo;interim&rdquo; tag from his title and made him the full-time head coach.
&ldquo;I felt confident the whole time to be honest with you,&rdquo; Terry said Tuesday at his news conference, where the former assistant was introduced as head coach. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d prepared my whole life for this opportunity.&rdquo;
Not everyone was so calm about it. As the season wore on and Texas advanced deeper in the NCAA Tournament, the university&rsquo;s wait-and-see approach became one of the biggest stories of the postseason as fans and players, past and present, wondered what more did he have to prove?
For some, March Madness was being mad at Texas for being slow on the decision.
Texas finally announced Monday &mdash; about 24 hours after the Longhorns&rsquo; season ended in the Elite Eight &mdash; that Terry was indeed the new head coach.
&ldquo;You had a very long job interview,&rdquo; Texas President Jay Hartzell said Tuesday. &ldquo;And I would say you nailed it.&rdquo;
Texas officials put Terry in charge when Chris Beard initially was suspended, then fired, midseason after a felony domestic violence arrest.
He&rsquo;d been a Texas assistant for a decade under Rick Barnes before head-coaching stints at Fresno State and UTEP, before returning to the Longhorns as an assistant in 2021.
&ldquo;My time and Fresno and UTEP prepared me for this opportunity,&rdquo; Terry said. &ldquo;No one knows this place better than me and how to be successful at an elite level (at Texas).&rdquo;
Once in charge, Terry did just about everything anyone could ask. He guided an experienced, senior-laden team to a second-place finish in the Big 12 Conference, the third-most wins in school history, a Big 12 Tournament championship and its first Elite Eight since 2008.
The university did not immediately release a copy of the contract under a public records request from The Associated Press. University of Texas System Board of Regents Chairman Kevin Eltife said Terry got a five-year deal for $3 million per year.
&ldquo;Coach Terry is just everything we want in a leader,&rdquo; Eltife said. &ldquo;We all want to win. But you also want someone who is a role model for our student. Class, integrity and character. And look at the way he handled himself after the incident we went through.&rdquo;
Attending the news conference were Terry&rsquo;s players from this season, as well as several former prominent Longhorns and NBA players, including LaMarcus Aldridge and T.J. Ford. Both played at Texas while Terry was an assistant.
&ldquo;Everyone was worried what would happen&rdquo; after Beard was fired, Aldridge said. &ldquo;He bonded those guys together.&rdquo;
Beard was arrested on Dec. 12 after his fianc&eacute;e told police he strangled, bit and hit her during a confrontation at his home. She later said Beard didn&rsquo;t choke her. Texas fired Beard on Jan. 5, calling him &ldquo;unfit&rdquo; to lead the program.
The district attorney dismissed the charge in February. Prosecutors said they could not prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt and the fianc&eacute;e did not want to go to trial.
Beard has since been hired at Mississippi.
Terry said Beard reached out to congratulate him on Monday, adding he wished Beard &ldquo;nothing but success&rdquo; at Ole Miss.
Terry credited the Longhorns players for not fracturing under the stress of having their head coach fired midseason.
&ldquo;No team faced the challenge you guys faced this year,&rdquo; Terry said.
Texas should be regular contenders for the Elite Eight and beyond, he said. Texas went to the Final Four in 2003 and advanced to the Sweet 16 or Elite Eight four more times in his first stint as an assistant.
&ldquo;We set a high bar for ourselves&rdquo; this season, Terry said. &ldquo;We want to get back to that Elite Eight game. Obviously we want a different outcome when we get to that game and have a chance to get to the Final Four.&rdquo;

Rodney Terry held Texas together in crisis. Then he took the Longhorns on their deepest NCAA Tournament run in 15 years.

Terry says he always felt confident he’d earn Texas job

The Springfield Symphony Hall lists a capacity of 2,611. This is going to be a problem when the basketball world heads to western Massachusetts on Aug. 12.
Act surprised on Saturday when the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame announces its class of enshrinees for 2023. Among the finalists: Dirk Nowitzki, Pau Gasol, Dwyane Wade, Tony Parker and Gregg Popovich. It&rsquo;s widely assumed that they&rsquo;ll enter the Hall this summer, in what will be a most star-studded event.
&ldquo;We might need a stadium for that one,&rdquo; Brooklyn coach Jacque Vaughn said.
He&rsquo;s not wrong. More than 2,611 people will want to go to this. Probably more than 261,111 people will want to go to this.
It was never a question that the biggest names &mdash; the Nowitzki, Gasol, Wade, Parker group &mdash; would get into the Hall.
The question was about Popovich. Not if. But when.
The NBA&rsquo;s all-time winningest coach, a five-time champion and the coach of the team that won Olympic gold at the Tokyo Games quietly rejected overtures from the Hall in the past. He wanted to see his best San Antonio players &mdash; Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili among them &mdash; go into the Hall first. He also wanted to see some coaches he respected most, like Rudy Tomjanovich, finally get the call first. Besides, it&rsquo;s not like people will look at Popovich with more reverence or respect after he gets his orange jacket from the Hall and officially gets to be introduced as a Hall of Famer.
&ldquo;It will mean more to us as former coaches, former players, than to him I think,&rdquo; Vaughn said. &ldquo;And that&rsquo;s not a slight at all. I think what he will enjoy is seeing his former players there, and people who he has touched in a tremendous way, families he&rsquo;s impacted for a long time because of his knowledge and his ability to share his knowledge and his ability to care for people.&rdquo;
More than 300 people have either played for or coached under Popovich in his time with the Spurs and USA Basketball. Nowitzki had more than 200 teammates. Gasol is beloved by teammates on two continents. The Miami Heat will probably send their entire staff up to see Wade give his speech. Add up the numbers, and we&rsquo;re getting toward that magic 2,611 number really quickly. And that doesn&rsquo;t even include, you know, the enshrinees&rsquo; families and friends, along with the other living Hall of Famers.
&ldquo;I know this much,&rdquo; Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll be on a plane from wherever we are, and I&rsquo;ll be there.&rdquo;
Spoelstra will be coaching with USA Basketball this summer under head coach Steve Kerr at the Basketball World Cup, which takes them to the Philippines in August and September following warm-up games in Las Vegas, Spain and Abu Dhabi. They&rsquo;ll be in Las Vegas until a few days before the Hall enshrinement, then the American contingent will head to Spain for games against Spain and Slovenia. Can&rsquo;t imagine they&rsquo;ll be very well-attended, not with Gasol going into the Hall that same weekend, with Slovenia&rsquo;s Luka Doncic probably going to pick being with Nowitzki over a pair of exhibitions, with Popovich set to be enshrined.
The Hall will give the enshrinees a number of tickets. It won&rsquo;t be enough for any of them. Popovich&rsquo;s guest list will be impossible to pare down, especially his innermost circle of confidants, who remain there even after they leave the Spurs.
Case in point: Utah coach Will Hardy. He left the Spurs to be an assistant in Boston under another former Spurs player and coach, Ime Udoka. But when Popovich was coaching the Olympic team, he picked some of the best and brightest to be alongside him, Kerr, Spoelstra, Mike Krzyzewski and others for the process of getting ready. Hardy made that list.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve talked about imposter syndrome some this year &mdash; maybe never higher than those moments when you&rsquo;re sitting in a room and it&rsquo;s Gregg Popovich, Steve Kerr, Erik Spoelstra, Jerry Colangelo, Jay Wright, Lloyd Pierce, Ime Udoka, Coach K is in the room,&rdquo; Hardy said. &ldquo;And you&rsquo;re going, &lsquo;How am I sitting at this table right now?&rsquo; In a lot of ways it makes no sense. I felt like I was in the greatest basketball grad school class of all time. You almost can&rsquo;t write fast enough in terms of taking notes and listening.&rdquo;
So many of the pairings will be fitting. The Popovich-Parker duo and Wade faced off twice in the NBA Finals. Popovich-Parker and Nowitzki had Texas-sized battles for years. Nowitzki and Wade played in the finals against one another twice, each winning a title on the other&rsquo;s home floor. Gasol played against them all for years.
They&rsquo;re all beloved. Wade has teammates already planning their trips to Springfield. Orlando coach Jamahl Mosley doesn&rsquo;t have his entire summer plan picked out yet, but he&rsquo;s going to Springfield for Nowitzki &mdash; who he coached in Dallas.
&ldquo;The most wonderful thing about him is that being around him in public and going to events, I&rsquo;ve never seen him turn people down or say no,&rdquo; Mosley said of Nowitzki. &ldquo;Whether he&rsquo;s tired or doesn&rsquo;t want to do it, he&rsquo;s always going to go the extra mile to make sure those around him feel his appreciation for how much they&rsquo;ve given to him. He might be one of the most humble Hall of Famers I&rsquo;ve ever been around in that regard.&rdquo;
Mosley will have a seat for the big night. So will Hardy. So will Vaughn. How close they&rsquo;ll be to the stage is anyone&rsquo;s guess, but with this Hall class, there won&rsquo;t be a bad seat in the house.

Among the HOF finalists to be announced Saturday: Dirk Nowitzki, Pau Gasol, Dwyane Wade, Tony Parker and Gregg Popovich.

This 2023 Basketball Hall of Fame class could be an all-time great

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) &mdash; Texas has reached an agreement with Rodney Terry to be the Longhorns&rsquo; full-time head basketball coach, taking the interim tag off his title after he led the program to the Elite Eight following the midseason firing of Chris Beard, a person with knowledge of the deal told The Associated Press.
Texas was knocked out of the NCAA Tournament by Miami on Sunday, ending its longest postseason run since 2008. Terry and Texas officials reached the agreement Monday, according to a person with knowledge of the deal who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
Financial terms of the deal were not immediately available.
Terry took over the Longhorns as acting head coach when Beard was first suspended on Dec. 12 after a felony domestic violence arrest. Terry was given the title of interim head coach when Beard was fired Jan. 5.
Texas won the Big 12 Tournament championship and questions about Terry&rsquo;s future with the program were amplified as the Longhorns kept winning in the postseason. Texas fans wondered what more he needed to prove and Longhorns players publicly advocated for him to get the job.
Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte had praised Terry&rsquo;s job handling the team in crisis and gave him a raise, though only through April. He&rsquo;d also noted Terry inherited a veteran roster and strong staff of assistants built by Beard.

Terry was given the title of interim head coach when Chris Beard was fired Jan. 5, and now, gets to continue coaching the Longhorns.

Texas reportedly reaches deal with Rodney Terry as full-time coach

GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) &mdash; Angel Reese had 18 rebounds and LSU returned to the women&rsquo;s Final Four for the first time in 15 years by beating Miami 54-42 on Sunday night, carrying a rapid rise under second-year coach Kim Mulkey straight to the sport&rsquo;s biggest stage.
Alexis Morris scored 21 points and Reese added 13 for the third-seeded Tigers (32-2), who asserted control of a grinding, defense-first game. LSU&rsquo;s length caused Miami problems even with Reese &mdash; an Associated Press first-team All-American &mdash; having a brutal shooting day, and the Tigers offset their offensive hiccups by dominating the glass.
LSU shot 30.2% and went 1 for 12 from 3-point range, including misses on its first nine attempts. But Miami was even worse from 3, missing all 15 tries.
The third-seeded Tigers finished with a 49-35 rebounding edge behind Reese, which led to a 15-3 edge in second-chance points &mdash; all desperately needed on a day with offensive rebounds readily available.
Mulkey is in her second season at LSU, bringing a resume with three NCAA titles from her time at Baylor along with some flamboyant sideline looks such as her shimmering silver jacket with white pants for this one. She had cautioned that the Tigers were overachieving when they&rsquo;re still strengthening a program for the long haul.
Maybe so, but they&rsquo;re ahead of schedule after pushing their way through the NCAA Tournament&rsquo;s Greenville 2 Region. The Tigers head to Dallas to face Ohio State or Virginia Tech in Friday&rsquo;s national semifinals. Reese, a Maryland transfer who has led Mulkey&rsquo;s team all year with her physical play, was named the region&rsquo;s most outstanding player.
When the horn sounded, Mulkey turned to her bench and leaned forward to put her hands on her knees as though in disbelief. Players soon began running to midcourt to celebrate &mdash; except for Morris running straight to the scorer&rsquo;s table and jumping on top of it.
Reese missed her first nine shots and didn&rsquo;t manage her first basket until early in the third quarter, finishing the day 3 for 15 from the field. But she went 7 of 10 from the free-throw line and contributed four assists, three steals and two blocks.
Jasmyne Roberts scored 22 points for ninth-seeded Miami (22-13), which had taken a wild ride here. The Hurricanes rallied from a huge deficit to beat Oklahoma State in the first round, stunned No. 1 seed Indiana on the road, then beat Villanova in Friday&rsquo;s Sweet 16 despite blowing a 21-point lead.
The last win set off an emotional on-court celebration for Katie Meier&rsquo;s bunch, which had played with toughness and athleticism to get to its first Elite Eight. The Hurricanes were trying to match the record for lowest-seeded team ever to reach a Final Four, set by Arkansas in 1998.
But the Hurricanes struggled from the start offensively, even as their defense kept them hanging around and leaving open opportunities to make a push.
Outside of Roberts &mdash; coming off a career-best 26 points against Villanova &mdash; seemingly no Hurricanes player could make a shot.
The Hurricanes shot 31.6% and plenty of their missed 3-pointers came off clean looks. Destiny Harden, who hit the shot to beat Indiana, scored three points on 0-for-9 shooting with seven missed 3s.
It was a disappointing conclusion to an incredible run for Miami, and the school fell short of making history twice in one day.
The men&rsquo;s and women&rsquo;s teams were each playing Sunday to reach the program&rsquo;s first Final Four. The men pulled it off, beating Texas in Kansas City, Missouri. That game went final during the first quarter of the women&rsquo;s game &mdash; drawing cheers when the final play was shown on the arena scoreboards.
Miami battled, but couldn&rsquo;t complete the double.

Alexis Morris scored 21 points and Reese added 13 for the Tigers, who asserted control of a grinding, defense-first game.

Reese, LSU women push past Miami 54-42 to reach Final Four

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) &mdash; Jordan Miller and Isaiah Wong rallied Miami from a 13-point second-half deficit, Norchad Omier made two big free throws and an even more important steal down the stretch, and the fifth-seeded Hurricanes stunned No. 2 seed Texas 88-81 on Sunday to reach the Final Four for the first time in school history.
Miller finished with 27 points, going 7 of 7 from the field and 13 of 13 from the foul line, while Wong scored 12 of his 14 points in the second half to beat the Longhorns, who had been the top remaining seed in a topsy-turvy NCAA Tournament.
Now, after falling short in the Elite Eight a year ago, the fifth-seeded Hurricanes (29-7) are headed to NRG Stadium in Houston for a date with No. 4 seed UConn on Saturday night. Two more first-time Final Four participants, 5 seed San Diego State and 9 seed Florida Atlantic, will play in the other national semifinal.
In this maddest of Marches, it&rsquo;s the first time since seeding began in 1979 that no team seeded better than No. 4 made the Final Four.
Miami and Texas were tied 79-all when Omier, who is known for his bruising style of play, was fouled by the Longhorns&rsquo; Brock Cunningham while going for a loose ball. He made both of the foul shots to give the Hurricanes the lead, then stole the ball from Texas star Marcus Carr at the other end, and Wong made to more free throws with 34 seconds left.
Miller kept drilling foul shots down the stretch to ice the Midwest Region title for the Hurricanes.
Carr scored 17 points to lead the Longhorns (29-9).

Miller finished with 27 points, going 7 of 7 and 13 of 13 from the foul line, while Wong scored 12 of his 14 points in the second half.

Miller, Wong rally Miami past Texas 88-81 for first Final Four

LAS VEGAS (AP) &mdash; The critique of UConn under coach Dan Hurley had been the program&rsquo;s inability to win in March.
Consecutive first-round NCAA Tournament exits meant the Huskies were good, not great &mdash; certainly not anywhere in league with the UConn women&rsquo;s program.
In perhaps the maddest March of all, Huskies proved they are elite again, putting in another dominating performance a few hours after the UConn women had a rare misstep.
Jordan Hawkins scored 20 points and UConn overwhelmed its fourth straight NCAA Tournament opponent, earning its first trip to the Final Four in nine years with an 82-54 blowout of Gonzaga on Saturday night.
&ldquo;I think it becomes a little bit of a mental hurdle, especially like early rounds of the NCAA Tournament where you feel like maybe the burden of the history and tradition and first-round games, maybe even second-round games,&rdquo; Hurley said. &ldquo;The climb to get to this point has been real and it&rsquo;s been more challenging than I thought.&rdquo;
The Huskies (29-8) have felt right at home in their first extended March Madness run since winning the 2014 national championship, playing their best basketball of what had been an up-and-down season.
UConn controlled the usually efficient Bulldogs at both ends in the West Region final, building a 23-point lead early in the second half to waltz right into the final section of the bracket.
Those first-round exits are now well in the rearview mirror. So is that midseason funk.
These elite Huskies did what the UConn women couldn&rsquo;t for once and are headed to Houston, where they will play Texas or Miami.
UConn has a pretty good track record once it gets this far, too: The Huskies are 8-1 all-time in Final Four games.
&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve got a lot to prove,&rdquo; said Andre Jackson Jr., who had eight points, 10 assists and nine rebounds. &ldquo;We still have a chip on our shoulder.&rdquo;
The Bulldogs (31-6) didn&rsquo;t have the same second-half magic they had in a last-second win over UCLA in the Elite Eight.
Gonzaga allowed UConn to go on a late run to lead by seven at halftime and fell completely apart after All-American Drew Timme went to the bench with his fourth foul early in the second half.
The Zags shot 33% from the field &mdash; 7 of 29 in the second half &mdash; and went 2 for 20 from 3 to stumble in their bid for a third Final Four since 2017.
&ldquo;UConn was just terrific tonight and we didn&rsquo;t have any answers, especially when kind of everything really didn&rsquo;t bounce our way,&rdquo; Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. &ldquo;And we can&rsquo;t absorb a game like that when our offense is as bad as it was tonight.&rdquo;
Alex Karaban scored 12 points and Adama Sanogo had 10 points and 10 rebounds for UConn.
Timme had 12 points and 10 rebounds, receiving a warm ovation after being taken out of his final collegiate game with 1:50 left.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m just so thankful that the program and the place took me for who I was,&rdquo; said Timme, who shared a long embrace with Few when he exited. &ldquo;They didn&rsquo;t ask me to be anybody but myself.&rdquo;
The Zags started off like they had a Vegas hangover, firing off two air-balled 3-pointers and a wild runner by Timme. Once Gonzaga shook out the cobwebs, the Bulldogs kept the Huskies bridled with defense, with hard hedges on screens and Timme sagging off Jackson to protect the lane.
UConn countered by getting the ball into the strong hands of Sanogo, the facilitator. The UConn big man picked apart Gonzaga&rsquo;s double-teams for five first-half assists, including two for layups.
&ldquo;We figured that out,&rdquo; Hurley said. &ldquo;That doesn&rsquo;t work anymore.&rdquo;
Karaban hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to put the Huskies up 39-32 at halftime, and it got worse for Gonzaga to start the second half.
UConn pushed the lead to 12 and Timme picked up his third and fourth fouls in the opening 2 1/2 minutes &mdash; one on a charge, another on a box-out under the rim.
&ldquo;We brought the team together and tried to keep positive thoughts and try to keep chipping away at that lead,&rdquo; Gonzaga forward Anton Watson said. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s hard when Drew goes out.&rdquo;
The Huskies really got rolling when Timme took a seat, using their defense to get out in transition and set up 3-pointers. A 14-3 run put UConn up 60-37 and Few took the calculated gamble of bringing Timme back in.
It made little difference.
UConn kept up the pressure and kept making shots, looking an awful lot like the favorite to win it all.&nbsp;

Jordan Hawkins scored 20 points and UConn overwhelmed its fourth straight NCAA Tournament opponent.

UConn routs Gonzaga 82-54 for first Final Four in 9 years

NEW YORK (AP) &mdash; Alijah Martin sent a message early for upstart Florida Atlantic, soaring to the basket for a one-handed jam and chirping with the Kansas State players about his poster moment at Madison Square Garden.
&ldquo;They&rsquo;re going to label us whatever, but we&rsquo;re some pit bulls and Rottweilers,&rdquo; Martin said.
Now they can call the ninth-seeded Owls a Final Four team.
Martin and FAU withstood another huge game by Kansas State&rsquo;s Markquis Nowell and brushed off a deficit in the final eight minutes to beat the Wildcats 79-76 on Saturday night.
FAU (35-3), making just its second appearance in the NCAA Tournament and first since 2002, won the East Region and will head to Houston to play the winner of Sunday&rsquo;s South Region final between Creighton and San Diego State.
&ldquo;I expect the prognosticators to pick us fifth in the Final Four,&rdquo; fifth-year FAU coach Dusty May said.
In one of the most unpredictable NCAA Tournaments ever &mdash; all four No. 1 seeds were out by the Elite Eight &mdash; the Owls from Conference USA typify the madness.
The winningest team in Division I this season had never won an NCAA Tournament game before ripping off four straight, all by single digits, to become the first No. 9 seed to reach the Final Four since Wichita State in 2013. The Owls are the third No. 9 to get that far since seeding began in 1979.
&ldquo;Honestly, all the things people say just fuels us to go out there and play even harder,&rdquo; said Bryan Greenlee, who scored 16 points before fouling out. &ldquo;They can say whatever they want, say we&rsquo;re a Cinderella team, say we don&rsquo;t belong, but we&rsquo;ve constantly proven people wrong all season.&rdquo;
Nowell, the 5-foot-8 native New Yorker &mdash; @MrNewYorkCityy on Twitter &mdash; was incredible again at Madison Square Garden, with 30 points, 12 assists and five steals. In the Sweet 16, Nowell set the NCAA Tournament record with 19 assists in an overtime win against Michigan State. He didn&rsquo;t get enough help this time.
Nae&rsquo;Qwan Tomlin was the only other player in double figures for Kansas State (26-10) with 14 points. Keyontae Johnson, the Wildcats&rsquo; leading scorer, fouled out with nine points.
&ldquo;Keyontae played 18 minutes, and that&rsquo;s why he was neutralized,&rdquo; said first-year Kansas State coach Jerome Tang, who took over a team that went 14-17 last season.
Martin scored 17 points, including a huge 3 down the stretch, the 7-foot-1 Vladislav Goldin had 14 points and 13 rebounds, and Michael Forrest made four clutch free throws in the final 20 seconds for the Owls, who held steady as the Wildcats made one last push.
Cam Carter made a 3 from the wing with 22.8 seconds left to cut FAU&rsquo;s lead to 75-74 and Kansas State sent Forrest to the line with 17.9 seconds left. The senior made both to make it a three-point game.
Nowell found Tomlin inside for a layup with 8.6 seconds left to cut the lead to one again, and again K-State sent Forrest to the line. With 6.9 remaining, he made them both.
With no timeouts left, Nowell rushed down the court, gave up the ball to Ismael Massoud outside the 3-point line &mdash;- and never got it back. FAU&rsquo;s Johnell Davis swiped it away and time ran out.
&ldquo;I was trying to get Ish a shot,&rdquo; Nowell said. &ldquo;Coach wanted Ish to set the screen, and I waved it off because I felt like on the right side of the court, that&rsquo;s where Ish hits most of his shots. And they closed out hard to him, and he didn&rsquo;t get his shot off.&rdquo;
Nowell was named the most outstanding player of the region after his final collegiate game, but FAU turned out to be the best team.
&ldquo;I gave my heart and soul to this university, to this team,&rdquo; Nowell said. &ldquo;I maximized everything I had inside of me to see these guys happy.&rdquo;
As the Owls built their lead in the final minutes, Kansas State fans who had packed the building became anxiously quiet and the &ldquo;F-A-U!&rdquo; chants started to rise.
The Owls rushed the floor to celebrate a historic moment for the school. FAU didn&rsquo;t even have a basketball program until the late 1980s and has only been in Division I for the last 30 years.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m living the dream right now,&rdquo; Forrest said.
FAU held up to Tennessee&rsquo;s bully ball in the Sweet 16 and dropped a 40-point second half on the best defense in the nation to eliminate the Southeastern Conference team.
Against one of the Big 12&rsquo;s best, FAU dominated the boards, 44-22, and became the first team from C-USA to to reach the Final Four since Memphis in 2008.
The Owls aren&rsquo;t hanging around much longer. They&rsquo;re moving to the American Athletic Conference next season. But first: a trip to Texas.
BIG PICTURE
FAU: The Owls put together four straight winning records under May before breaking through with a season for the ages that nobody saw coming. They were picked fifth in the C-USA preseason coaches&rsquo; poll.
Kansas State: The Wildcats were trying to get back to the Final Four for the first time since 1964.
UP NEXT
Florida Atlantic is a combined 0-3 against San Diego State (0-2) and Creighton.

FAU withstood another huge game by Nowell and brushed off a deficit in the final eight minutes to beat the Wildcats 79-76.

FAU holds off Markquis Nowell and K-State to reach first Final Four

SEATTLE (AP) &mdash; UConn&rsquo;s record Final Four run is over, thanks to a monumental performance by Ohio State.
The Buckeyes ended UConn&rsquo;s unprecedented streak of reaching 14 consecutive Final Fours, beating the Huskies 73-61 on Saturday in the Sweet 16 of the women&rsquo;s NCAA Tournament.
&ldquo;The problem with streaks is the longer they go, you&rsquo;re closer to it ending than you are to the beginning of it,&rdquo; UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s just a matter of time. I mean, it&rsquo;s not if it&rsquo;s going to happen. It&rsquo;s just a matter of time when it&rsquo;s going to happen. And it was going to happen sooner rather than later.&rdquo;
Cotie McMahon scored 23 points for the Buckeyes, who snapped their three-decade Elite Eight drought. The Buckeyes hadn&rsquo;t made a regional final since 1993, when they eventually lost in the title game to Texas Tech.
&ldquo;When I had the opportunity to come to Ohio State, this was certainly the goal and the vision to go farther than they have been going,&rdquo; said coach Kevin McGuff, who had never beaten UConn. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not easy to get here, obviously. But I&rsquo;m really proud of our team and our program of how we&rsquo;ve evolved to be able to get to this point.
&ldquo;Like I said, I mean, I have so much respect for Geno and his staff and all that they have accomplished. So for us to be able to win this game in the Sweet 16 is obviously extremely significant. They&rsquo;re just hard to beat. They&rsquo;re so well-coached. So this is a great win for us.&rdquo;
The third-seeded Buckeyes (28-7) forced No. 2 seed UConn (31-6) into 25 turnovers, ending the Huskies&rsquo; season before the national semifinals for the first time in 14 seasons. UConn hadn&rsquo;t been eliminated this early since 2006.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s an impossibility to do what we have done already,&rdquo; Auriemma said. &ldquo;What&rsquo;s the next highest streak? ... And you take that in stride and you say, yeah, it was great while it lasted and it&rsquo;s a credit to all the players that we had and all the times that you have to perform really, really well at this level.&rdquo;
Ohio State will play Virginia Tech on Monday night in the Seattle 3 Region final with a trip to Dallas at stake. The Hokies beat Tennessee 73-64.
Ohio State, which had to rally from a double-digit deficit in the first round against James Madison, used full-court pressure to disrupt the Huskies&rsquo; offense.
&ldquo;Our press is what we rely on, and sticking together and talking through it,&rdquo; said Ohio State&rsquo;s Jacy Sheldon, who had 17 points and went 10-for-10 from the foul line. &ldquo;We knew UConn was going to be ready for us, so we knew we were going to have to stay consistent throughout the game.&rdquo;
This has been the most trying year of Auriemma&rsquo;s Hall of Fame career. UConn was beset by injuries and illnesses to both players and coaches, including a torn ACL that sidelined star Paige Bueckers all season. It got so bad the Huskies had to postpone a game when they didn&rsquo;t have enough scholarship players. They also saw their unbelievable run of 30 years without consecutive losses come to an end.
&ldquo;We picked the worst day to actually be doing the things that we&rsquo;ve been struggling with all year long,&rdquo; Auriemma said in a sideline interview during the game.
Lou Lopez Senechal scored 25 points for the Huskies, Azzi Fudd had 14, and Ohio State transfer Dorka Juhasz finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds.
The Huskies led 17-9 before Ohio State started scoring and turning UConn over with its full-court press. The Buckeyes scored the next 17 points, forcing 11 turnovers during that stretch, which spanned the first and second quarters. UConn had eight turnovers to start the second quarter, leaving Auriemma exasperated on the sideline.
McMahon was converting those turnovers into points for the Buckeyes as the freshman finished the half with 18 points &mdash; equaling the number of turnovers the Huskies had in the opening 20 minutes. Ohio State led 36-26 at the break.
This was only the sixth time UConn had trailed by double digits at the half in an NCAA Tournament game, according to ESPN. The Huskies lost all of those.
UConn did a better job of taking care of the ball in the second half and cut the deficit to 44-39 on Senechal&rsquo;s layup with 3:53 left in the third quarter. Ohio State responded and still led by 10 after three quarters.
The Buckeyes didn&rsquo;t let the Huskies make any sort of run in the fourth quarter. UConn got within nine with 4:30 left, but McMahon had a three-point play to restore the double-digit lead. The Huskies never threatened after that.
Now the Huskies will start their offseason sooner than anytime in the past 17 years.
TIP-INS
This was the first win for Ohio State over UConn in seven tries. The teams&rsquo; last meeting was in the 2019-20 regular season. ... UConn was a paltry 7-for-15 from the foul line while Ohio State went 22-for-30. ... UConn&rsquo;s season high for turnovers was 27 against Princeton.
THE HOUSE THAT SUE BUILT
The Seattle Regionals are being playing in Climate Pledge Arena &mdash; home of the Seattle Storm. UConn and Storm great Sue Bird was in the stands, sitting a few rows behind the scorers&rsquo; table. She received a loud ovation from the crowd when she was shown midway through the first quarter on the videoboards.
FAMILIAR FOE
Juhasz graduated from Ohio State two years ago and flourished there, earning all-Big Ten honors twice. She came to UConn last year looking for a new challenge and wanting to play for a team that could compete for national championships. She&rsquo;ll leave without one.
There is a mutual respect between Juhasz and the Buckeyes&rsquo; coaching staff.

The Buckeyes ended UConn’s unprecedented streak of reaching 14 consecutive Final Fours, beating the Huskies 73-61.

Ohio State ends UConn women’s run of 14 straight Final Fours

GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) &mdash; Amid and happiness and on-court celebration for Maryland reaching the Elite Eight for the first time in eight years, Terps coach Brenda Frese took a few moments to smile and reflect how far her team has come in the past year.
The best part for Frese is the journey&rsquo;s not done yet.
Diamond Miller and Shyanne Sellers had 18 points apiece as the Terps (28-6) took control in the third quarter to defeat depleted No. 3 seed Notre Dame 76-59 on Saturday and move a victory away from a trip to the Final Four.
The Terps will play either defending champion South Carolina, the top overall seed, or No. 4 seed UCLA on Monday night for a trip to Dallas.
Chasing a championship didn&rsquo;t look promising at the end of last season. Frese had lost 85 percent of her offense a year ago as Maryland went through a roster transition with nine new faces. The group gelled quickly and are among the last teams still standing in March Madness.
&ldquo;What I felt like a year ago and to where we are today,&rdquo; recalled Frese, who won an NCAA title 2006 and last reached the Elite Eight in 2015. &ldquo;Yeah, this one is going to be one I&rsquo;ll remember for a very long time.&rdquo;
Miller, the transcendent 6-foot-3 All-American, was asked why she didn&rsquo;t join the exodus from Maryland after her junior season a year ago.&nbsp;
She reasoned that stay or go, she&rsquo;d play with new, unfamiliar players. &ldquo;When you look at it like that, I was like, &lsquo;I&rsquo;m just going to stay and trust the process.&rsquo; And I&rsquo;m so happy I did,&rdquo; Miller said.
Miller and Sellers combined for 30 of their 36 points in the final two quarters.
The third-seeded Fighting Irish (27-6) played once again without injured leading-scorer Olivia Miles after her knee injury at the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament earlier this month.
Miles and guard Dara Mabrey, both starters, were injured spectators for Notre Dame, which hung tight with Maryland for 25 minutes before Miller and Sellers took over.
Miller, the first-team All-American, shook off a poor first half as Maryland gained control. Tied at 44-all, Lavender Briggs had a 3-pointer and Miller followed with a three-point play as the Terps closed the third quarter on a 13-1 run.
Notre Dame, which fought off Mississippi State on its home floor to advance last week, could not respond.
Maryland used its defensive pressure to break out early, forcing eight turnovers by the Fighting Irish to build a 19-14 lead. But Notre Dame showed its NCAA Tournament resiliency once more with a 13-0 burst to move in front 27-19.
Miller and Brinae Alexander each hit 3-pointers in the final 80 seconds of the half to cut the lead to 32-31.
Things changed in the second half as the Terps and their leading scorers turned up the fire.
&ldquo;I just felt like they were confident and aggressive and they got really good looks, and they nailed every shot that they took,&rdquo; Notre Dame coach Niele Ivey said.
Part of Notre Dame&rsquo;s success was holding Miller in check the first 20 minutes. She was just 1-of-4 shooting with two rebounds and three of her team&rsquo;s eight turnovers. When Miller got going, Maryland was moving on to where it hadn&rsquo;t been since 2015.
Sonia Citron led the Fighting Irish with 14 points, their only double-figure scorer.
BIG PICTURE
Notre Dame: The Fighting Irish were not expected to get this far after Miles knee injury at the ACC Tournament. Ivey thought her team&rsquo;s run to the Sweet 16 will give them confidence to get back to work and put up another stellar season.
Maryland: Frese has been enthralled by this team after folding so many new faces this season. Maryland will look for perhaps its most unexpected Final Four visit when it plays for the Greenville 1 Regional on Monday night.
STAT WATCH
Maryland was just the third team in the women&rsquo;s NCAA Tournament this century to allow two 3-pointers or less, record 15 or more steals and win by 15 or more points, according to OptaSTATS. Duke accomplished the other two, first in 2002 against Texas, then in 2012 against St. John&rsquo;s. Notre Dame made just two threes and finished with a season-high 25 turnovers.
MILES WATCH
Ivey said second-leading scorer Olivia Miles will have surgery next week and is hopeful she can take part when the Fighting Irish return for workouts this summer. Ivey said much depends on how the knee surgery goes and how long it will take to recuperate.&nbsp;

The Terps took control in the third quarter to defeat depleted Notre Dame 76-59 to move a victory away from a trip to the Final Four.

Maryland Madness: Miller leads Maryland to Elite Eight

LAS VEGAS (AP) &mdash; March has gone from madness to unprecedented.
With Miami&rsquo;s win over Houston and San Diego State&rsquo;s takedown of Alabama on Friday night, the men&rsquo;s NCAA Tournament will not have a No. 1 seed in the Elite Eight for the first time since seeding began in 1979.
&ldquo;There&rsquo;s not a lot of difference between the best team in the country and the worst team in the country,&rdquo; San Diego State coach Brian Dutcher said. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re seeing that on this stage.&rdquo;
Purdue, Kansas, Houston and Alabama are all gone, ensuring the Final Four will not have a No. 1 team for the first time since 2011 and the third overall. The four teams deemed by the NCAA to be the best in the country combined to win five tournament games this year, the fewest by three among No. 1 seeds since the field expanded to 64 teams in 1985.
Texas is the lone No. 2 seed remaining after bouncing Xavier out of the bracket 83-71 Friday night under interim coach Rodney Terry. The fewest combined No. 1-2 seeds in the Elite Eight before this year was two (three times).
How crazy has it been? The national title game is guaranteed to have at least one of these teams: San Diego State, Creighton, Florida Atlantic or Kansas State. The Aztecs, Bluejays and Owls have never been to the Elite Eight. The Wildcats were picked to finish last in the Big 12.&nbsp;
It&rsquo;s also a lock the winning coach will be a first-time champion.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a lot of really good programs in the country that have lost &mdash; I mean, we could go down the list of them,&rdquo; Alabama coach Nate Oats said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s what makes the NCAA Tournament the NCAA Tournament. They&rsquo;re all good teams.&rdquo;
The madness started in the opening round of the East Region, when fairytale Fairleigh Dickinson wrecked brackets around the world by becoming the second No. 16 seed to beat a No. 1.
Goodbye, Purdue.
Arkansas was the next giant killer, taking down reigning national champion and West Region No. 1 seed Kansas in the second round.
The Sweet 16 turned sour on Friday for Alabama, the bracket&rsquo;s No. 1 overall seed. The Crimson Tide were no match for Dutcher&rsquo;s ball-and-body-hawking San Diego State Aztecs in a 71-64 South Region loss in Louisville, Kentucky. San Diego State is the first Mountain West Conference school to reach the Elite Eight.
Miami capped the No. 1 carnage in the Midwest Region by taking apart one of the nation&rsquo;s stingiest defenses in a 89-75 win over Houston in Kansas City, Missouri that had Hurricanes coach Jim Larranaga dancing in the locker room.
&ldquo;Unfortunately, one off-night and you go home in this tournament,&rdquo; Cougars coach Kelvin Sampson said.
On to an Elite Eight unlike any other.
___
AP Sports Writer Josh Dubow contributed to this report.

The Men’s NCAA Tournament will not have a No. 1 seed in the Elite Eight for the first time since seeding began in 1979.

Crazy Eight: No top seeds among last 8 in March Madness

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) &mdash; Knocking No. 1 seed Houston out of the NCAA Tournament made Jim Larra&ntilde;aga feel like dancing.
Much to his players&rsquo; delight, the 73-year-old Miami coach busted moves straight out of the disco era in the locker room Friday night to celebrate an 89-75 Sweet 16 victory that left the tournament without a No. 1 seed among its final eight teams for the first time since seeding began in 1979.
Larra&ntilde;aga is known to dance in the locker room after his biggest wins, and this one in the Big Dance surely qualified.
&ldquo;We were all hyped up,&rdquo; Jordan Miller said. &ldquo;We love when Coach L dances. That&rsquo;s probably the best celebration we could look forward to.&rdquo;
Nijel Pack and Miami (28-7) hit shots from near and far against the stingiest defense in the country as the Hurricanes became only the fifth team this season to score at least 70 points against Houston (33-4).
&ldquo;We just wanted it really bad,&rdquo; Miller said. &ldquo;We came into this game as the underdogs. We had a lead throughout the whole game. I wouldn&rsquo;t say a comfortable lead, but a lead, and we just didn&rsquo;t want to let up.&rdquo;
The fifth-seeded Hurricanes made their second straight Elite Eight and will play second-seeded Texas in the Midwest Region final. Larra&ntilde;aga is seeking his first Final Four with Miami and second overall &mdash; he took George Mason there as an 11 seed in 2006.
About 30 minutes before Houston&rsquo;s loss, top overall seed Alabama fell to San Diego State in Louisville, Kentucky. Fellow No. 1 seeds Purdue and Kansas lost during the tournament&rsquo;s first weekend.
The Cougars simply couldn&rsquo;t stop a multifaceted Miami offense led by Pack&rsquo;s 3-point shooting. He had season highs of seven 3-pointers on 10 attempts and 26 points.
Isaiah Wong&rsquo;s mid-range game helped get the &rsquo;Canes out to a fast start, and he finished with 20 points. Miller hurt the Cougars with his penetration and had 13 points, and Norchad Omier was his usual rugged self under the basket while recording his 16th double-double with 12 points and 13 rebounds.
&ldquo;We emphasized moving the ball and finding the open man, and the guys did such a fantastic job from start to finish,&rdquo; Larra&ntilde;aga said. &ldquo;We only ended up with six turnovers. So that&rsquo;s the name of the game. And we tied them in rebounding. A great performance by our guys.&rdquo;
It was Pack who hit big shot after big shot, some from near the logo. He was comfortable inside T-Mobile Arena, where he played five games during his two seasons at nearby Kansas State.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a blessing to be back in this arena for sure,&rdquo; Pack said. &ldquo;My teammates found me early and kept me going. They instilled confidence in me from the jump ball. They kept feeding me and telling me to shoot the ball, and I shot it with a lot of confidence, and they were able to go in.&rdquo;
Houston was in the Sweet 16 for a fourth straight time, had won 15 of its last 16 games and had the season-long goal of playing in next week&rsquo;s Final Four in its home city.
&ldquo;Unfortunately, one off-night and you go home in this tournament,&rdquo; Cougars coach Kelvin Sampson said. &ldquo;We just never could get a foothold. We kept climbing, and we&rsquo;d get ahead of them, and then we just couldn&rsquo;t put stops together.&rdquo;
Miami used a 16-5 run spanning the halves to go up by double digits, with Omier&rsquo;s three-point play and Miller&rsquo;s short bank-in with the left hand making it 47-36 and prompting Sampson to call timeout less than two minutes into the second half.
Houston battled back to make it a two-point game, but then Pack made three 3s and Miller and Wooga Poplar hit one each to fuel a 16-2 run that put the Canes ahead 70-53. The lead grew to as much as 17 points, and Houston never got closer than 11 the rest of the way.
Walker led the Cougars with 16 points. Jamal Shead added 15 and All-American Marcus Sasser and Tramon Mark had 14 apiece for the Cougars, who shot just 37% overall and 29% from distance.
&ldquo;It was an amazing run,&rdquo; Sasser said. &ldquo;Came up short, but the time that we got to spend throughout these months, I couldn&rsquo;t have asked for nothing better.&rdquo;
Houston &mdash; which came into the game as a 7.5-point favorite, according to FanDuel Sportsbook &mdash; found itself behind at half for the second straight game after the Hurricanes played their sharpest half of the tournament.
Miami turned the ball over just once the first 20 minutes, converted Miami&rsquo;s six turnovers into 15 points and shot 6 of 14 from distance against the second-best 3-point defense in the country.
Pack made four of them, and all were timely. His first three gave Miami leads and his fourth broke a 31-all tie.
&ldquo;The Pack kid, some of the shots he made were shots you hope he takes,&rdquo; Sampson said. &ldquo;The problem was he made them. Some of those were Howitzers.&rdquo;
Oh, about that dance Larra&ntilde;aga did. He said it was to the Commodores&rsquo; 1985 song &ldquo;Nightshift.&rdquo;
Miller gave his coach&rsquo;s moves a grade of A.
&ldquo;Not an A-plus &mdash; it was a little stiff,&rdquo; Miller said. &ldquo;But he&rsquo;s still very mobile for his age.&rdquo;
BIG DAY FOR THE U
The Hurricanes reached the regional final just a few hours after Miami&rsquo;s ninth-seeded women&rsquo;s team hung on to beat Villanova and advance to the Elite Eight for the first time. Miami and UConn are the only schools with teams remaining in both tournaments.

Jim Larrañaga is seeking his first Final Four with Miami and second overall — he took George Mason there as an 11 seed in 2006.

Miami beats No. 1 seed Houston; all four top NCAA seeds out

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) &mdash; Rodney Terry stopped on the way to the Texas locker room after his team knocked out Xavier for a spot in the Elite Eight, the interim coach fulfilling a fan&rsquo;s wish for a photograph by flashing that all-too-familiar &ldquo;Hook &rsquo;em Horns&rdquo; sign.
&ldquo;Go get that job, coach!&rdquo; the grateful fan hollered after him.
A couple more wins and the folks at Texas might not have a choice.
The longtime assistant made his boldest statement yet for the full-time gig, guiding the Longhorns without ailing big man Dylan Disu to an 83-71 win over the Musketeers on Friday night. Tyrese Hunter scored 19 points, and Marcus Carr and Christian Bishop added 18 apiece, to move second-seeded Texas within a game of the Final Four for the first time in 15 years.
&ldquo;I thought we played one of our better defensive games tonight that we played all year,&rdquo; said Terry, who stepped into the top job in December, when Chris Beard was suspended and ultimately fired following allegations of domestic violence.
&ldquo;Proud of my guys and the way they put their will on this game from the start to finish.&rdquo;
Disu, who had been dominant through the first two games of the tournament, hurt his foot in a second-round win over Penn State. He got treatment on it all week, and the Longhorns successfully kept it secret until tipoff, when the big man played just a couple of minutes and then limped off the floor and straight to the locker room.
When he returned to the bench, he was wearing a big walking boot, a black hoodie and a grim expression.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;ll be day-to-day right now at the moment,&rdquo; Terry said. &ldquo;We got the best in the business working with us.&rdquo;
Still, the Longhorns already had a tough task ahead in No. 5 seed Miami on Sunday night, especially given the way the Hurricanes roared to an 89-75 win over Houston. The possibility of playing without Disu, who led the Longhorns to a Big 12 Tournament title and earned MVP honors on the same floor just two weeks ago, only makes it harder.
&ldquo;We knew before the game that we wouldn&rsquo;t have Dylan for the whole game,&rdquo; Carr said. &ldquo;We just wanted to really play for him. We knew how much this would mean to him. We got emotional in there knowing he wouldn&rsquo;t be out there.&rdquo;
Relegated to a 6-foot-9 cheerleader Friday night, Disu at least had plenty to celebrate.
Sir&rsquo;Jabari Rice scored 16 points and Timmy Allen added 11 for the Longhorns (29-8). The best-seeded team left in the tournament kept Souley Boum and Xavier&rsquo;s perimeter threats in check while making life miserable for Jack Nunge down low.
Adam Kunkel hit five 3-pointers and led the third-seeded Musketeers (27-10) with 21 points. Nunge scored 15 but needed 19 shots to get there, while Colby Jones also had 15 points. Boum didn&rsquo;t hit a field goal until early in the second half and finished with 12.
&ldquo;They were better than us,&rdquo; Xavier coach Sean Miller said. &ldquo;We had a very difficult time running our offense and that&rsquo;s a testament to their defense, because we&rsquo;ve been able to score virtually every game we&rsquo;ve played this year.&rdquo;
It was Texas that scored at will, though, and Carr that got them going. He spun through the lane like a Tilt-A-Whirl for tough buckets at the rim, and even knocked down a spinning, desperation 3 as the shot clock expired. And when Miller traded out a man-to-man defense for a zone, the Longhorns began to pound the ball to Bishop in the paint.
With dozens of family and friends on hand, the Creighton transfer from the Kansas City suburb of Lee&rsquo;s Summit, Missouri, went to work. Bishop threw down one dunk on Carr&rsquo;s alley-oop lob, then slammed down another a few minutes later.
By the time Allen banked in a half-court heave, the Longhorns had established a 42-25 halftime advantage &mdash; and had to be redirected from the Xavier tunnel, where they were busy celebrating, toward their own locker room.
&ldquo;Their pressure is something you can&rsquo;t really simulate until you&rsquo;re in the game against them. Their toughness, their experience,&rdquo; Miller said. &ldquo;And then offensively they have great guard play, and you feel that as well.&rdquo;
Xavier tried to creep back a couple of times, but the Longhorns never let their lead sniff single digits. And that gave Terry, who returned to Texas after head jobs at Fresno State and UTEP, a chance to breathe deeply and enjoy the moment.
The 54-year-old from the small Texas town of Angleton was on Rick Barnes&rsquo; staff the last time the Longhorns reached the Elite Eight, back in 2008. He was on the 2003 staff that guided them all the way to the Final Four, too.
Now, he&rsquo;s one step away from taking Texas on a most improbable trip to college basketball&rsquo;s biggest stage.
&ldquo;Continue to want more. I mean, each round &mdash; don&rsquo;t be satisfied,&rdquo; Terry said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to enjoy this victory for one night, like we have all year long, and we&rsquo;ll be on to the next challenge and very quickly against a really good Miami team.&rdquo;

Tyrese Hunter scored 19, and Marcus Carr and Christian Bishop added 18 apiece, to move Texas within a game of the Final Four.

Texas blows out Xavier 83-71 for spot in NCAA Elite Eight

SEATTLE (AP) &mdash; Hailey Van Lith put on a show in her home state to get Louisville back to a familiar place &mdash; the Elite Eight.
Van Lith scored 21 points to help the fifth-seeded Cardinals beat No. 8 seed Mississippi 72-62 on Friday night and advance to the final of the Seattle 4 Region.
&ldquo;It was amazing to have friends and family in the whole state out cheering for us,&rdquo; Van Lith said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m a very focused player, there were no distractions before the game. After the game, I kissed all the babies and hugged all the people. After business was done, I celebrated.&rdquo;
The Cardinals (26-11) will face second-seed Iowa on Sunday for a trip to the Final Four. The Hawkeyes beat Colorado 87-77, behind the play of Caitlin Clark.
It&rsquo;s the fifth consecutive NCAA Tournament that Louisville has gotten this far, one of the few teams to accomplish the feat.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s hard to continue to get to where we are and win,&rdquo; Louisville coach Jeff Walz said. &ldquo;You have to enjoy it. It&rsquo;s too short not to enjoy these types of moments.&rdquo;
Expectations were high for the Cardinals under Walz to start the season as the team was ranked seventh in The Associated Press&rsquo; preseason Top 25 poll. With many new players, the Cardinals lost four out of six games in late November and early December.
Walz wasn&rsquo;t concerned. The team started to get more comfortable on the court and made a run to the finals of the ACC Tournament, where they lost to Virginia Tech.
&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been playing well for the last month and a half,&rdquo; Walz said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll continue to roll and continue to play. We&rsquo;re going to enjoy this tonight. I&rsquo;m going to enjoy this. I&rsquo;m going to the bar. Life&rsquo;s too short.&rdquo;
On Friday, the Cardinals were met with a stiff challenge from upstart Mississippi.
The Rebels (25-9) hadn&rsquo;t advanced this far since 2007, when the team made its fifth Elite Eight in program history. They were looking to become only the second No. 8 seed to reach a regional final, joining Southwest Missouri State, which did it in 1992.
Mississippi&rsquo;s defense under coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin had been so good in the first two games of the tournament, keeping both Gonzaga and No. 1 seed Stanford under 50 points in each game.
&ldquo;The Sweet 16 is the new standard,&rdquo; McPhee-McCuin said.
Louisville reached that mark by the end of the third quarter on Merissah Russell&rsquo;s 3-pointer. That gave the Cardinals a 52-42 lead &mdash; their biggest of the game to that point. That 3 came shortly after Jones&rsquo; three-point play extended a 46-40 lead to nine.
The Cardinals played their own stout defense for the second game in a row. The Cardinals held host Texas to 51 points in the second round.
Louisville got off to a slow start against Mississippi, but then Van Lith got them going and the Cardinals led 20-15 after one quarter. After a slow start to the second quarter that saw them give up the lead, the Cardinals still managed to hold a 34-29 advantage at the half.
They couldn&rsquo;t separate themselves from the Rebels until the end of the quarter.
Ole Miss cut its deficit to 58-53 with 2:32 left before Van Lith hit a shot in the lane to stem the Rebels&rsquo; run. After Myah Taylor made the first of two free throws, Olivia Cochran had a three-point play with 2:17 left to make it 63-54 and pretty much seal the victory.
&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t feel like we had control of the game at any point. That&rsquo;s different for my team,&rdquo; McPhee-McCuin said. &ldquo;The lights got bright. There were a lot of times I didn&rsquo;t know who I was coaching. When do we give up 20 points in a quarter? That&rsquo;s uncharacteristic.&rdquo;
Marquesha Davis and Taylor each scored 19 points to lead Ole Miss.
HOMETOWN HERO
Around these parts, Van Lith is a household name. She&rsquo;s the small-town standout from 130 miles away who grew into being one of the best prep players in the country, the all-time state high school leader in scoring and now a star for the Cardinals.
Many fans from her hometown of Cashmere that has a population of 3,200 took in the game, cheering the Louisville star on. They gave her a warm ovation during pregame introductions and every time she scored.
TIP-INS
This was the first meeting between the schools. ... This is the 19th appearance for the Rebels in the NCAA Tournament, and the first time they have earned back-to-back bids to the tournament since the 2004 and 2005 seasons. ... Louisville&rsquo;s bench outscored Mississippi&rsquo;s 27-6.

Van Lith scored 21 points to help the fifth-seeded Cardinals beat No. 8 seed Mississippi 72-62 on Friday night.

March Madness: Louisville women top Ole Miss 72-62 in Sweet 16

Women&rsquo;s college basketball believes it has the makings for a hit reality TV show with star power driving a marketable product that has a growing audience.
So they&rsquo;re taking the ensemble on the road for the Sweet 16.
The NCAA changed the format of the tournament this year, featuring two regional sites instead of the traditional four. The games in Greenville, South Carolina, and Seattle are the latest step to grow the sport and show the ladies can stand on their own.
South Carolina coach Dawn Staley believes the question of whether women&rsquo;s hoops merits its own March Madness TV contract has already been answered, even though the women&rsquo;s tournament loses money under the current deal.
&ldquo;Somebody&rsquo;s watching women&rsquo;s basketball,&rdquo; Staley said. &ldquo;Somebody feels like we&rsquo;re in high demand, and obviously the decision-makers that put us on now realize that they&rsquo;ve got to keep putting us on.&rdquo;
The women&rsquo;s title game will be broadcast on ABC &mdash; the first appearance on network television since 1995. Women&rsquo;s basketball is part of a current contract that bundles all NCAA championships under one deal except for men&rsquo;s basketball and football.
The NCAA is expected to decide by the fall if the women&rsquo;s tournament will become a separate entity after hiring Endeavor, a consulting firm, to determine how to take championships to market.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s an exciting time. Year over year, we continue to demonstrate the value that women&rsquo;s basketball brings to that space,&rdquo; said Lynn Holzman, the NCAA vice president of women&rsquo;s basketball. &ldquo;It&rsquo;ll be exciting to see what the results are of this for the sport itself, but also for the NCAA more broadly in our championships.&rdquo;
TV ratings have been trending up over the last two years. This year&rsquo;s regular season was the most viewed on ESPN networks in eight years and was up 11% from last season. That came on the heels of last season&rsquo;s title game between South Carolina and UConn that averaged 4.85 million viewers &mdash; the most for a women&rsquo;s championship game since 2004. The first round had a 27% ratings increase from last year.
&ldquo;People enjoy watching close games. They like the fact that there&rsquo;s some semblance of uncertainty of who&rsquo;s going to win,&rdquo; UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s been so many changes in the top 10 all year long. ... Teams are in, they start out at the top they go out they come back in. I think all that creates a level of excitement.&rdquo;
People aren&rsquo;t just tuning in during March Madness, they have also been showing up.
Attendance at the NCAA Tournament has continued to rise the past five seasons, growing by 60% in the first two rounds from an average of 4,464 in 2016 to 7,240 this year. This season had the highest attendance ever for the first two rounds.
&ldquo;It makes us very bullish on women&rsquo;s basketball,&rdquo; Holzman said. &ldquo;It is demonstrative of the growth we&rsquo;ve been seeing in the sport.&rdquo;
Now the NCAA hopes that growth is reflected in increased television revenue.
ESPN pays $34 million per year for the championships package, which it agreed to in 2011, including women&rsquo;s basketball. But the law firm the NCAA hired to investigate equity issues in 2021 said in its report that estimated women&rsquo;s basketball annual broadcast rights would be worth $81 million to $112 million.
The NCAA said the 2019 women&rsquo;s tournament lost $2.8 million and those losses have multiplied the last two years since the the sports governing body increased spending after disparities between the men&rsquo;s and women&rsquo;s tourneys were pointed out.
If the NCAA can get close to the numbers projected in the 2021 report, it might be able to offer revenue shares &mdash; known as financial units &mdash; to women&rsquo;s teams in the tournament in a structure similar to what the men receive from their March Madness tournament.
Men&rsquo;s teams earn a slice of the money pie for their conference for every game they play excluding the championship. Each unit is paid by the NCAA over a six-year cycle. This year the NCAA will dole out $170 million to conferences from the men&rsquo;s tournament.
It&rsquo;s fair to say the women have a lot riding on this weekend at the two regional sites.
The NCAA is hoping the success of the Final Four &mdash; which sells out every year &mdash; translates to its new &ldquo;mini Final Fours.&rdquo;
Holzman believes the new format gave fans a better chance to know where their teams would be headed. The NCAA vice president of women&rsquo;s basketball also anticipated greater economic impact on host cities would lead to more bids to host in the future.
But for some coaches, it&rsquo;s all about location.
The regional sites the next two years will again be held in cities on opposite coasts. The closest team playing in Seattle this year is Colorado, located 1,300 miles away.
Texas coach Vic Schaefer is &ldquo;a little concerned&rdquo; about the distance some teams will have to travel, but eager to see how the tournament unfolds.
&ldquo;The powers that be believe it&rsquo;s going to be great, and I&rsquo;m hopeful that it will be,&rdquo; Schaefer said. &ldquo;Those are two opposite ends of the spectrums, west and east, three time zones between both of them. And there&rsquo;s just nothing in the Midwest. And we have a lot of teams in the Midwest. We&rsquo;ll see.&rdquo;

The NCAA is expected to decide by the fall if the women’s tournament will become a separate entity.

Tarleton State Texans